Son of the Hearth
by TinaKhoaNguyen
Summary: After the event at Red Grave, Nero was left with not just the responsibility of dealing with the abnormal activities of demons all around the world, but also several questions that involved the other side his family… If Vergil was his father, then who was his mother? Who in her right mind could see the good in his father, and love a power hungry demon like him?
1. Chapter 1

**My brother took this story down, but I am bringing this back cause... why not? I want to do something for everyone who loves this story, and I have always wanted to write a different protagonist than Naruto. but the thing is... I don't know a thing about Devil May Cry aside from a few basic things, even though I know him and love his design very much.**

**I will try to do some research on DMC, but I cannot promise that I will be able to write as well as he does, or the author whose story is the inspiration for him to write from.**

**Sorry for all the troubles that he has caused, my brother can be such a child sometimes. I have removed Nero's Chimera devil arm from this story, cause that seems to be the source of all the drama that has been going on recently. That being said, I love the way he uses his Devil Breakers more, it's a nice change from Dante and his father.**

**He's in hosptial now and will have surgery tomorrow. I don't think he will be able to walk soon, that's what the doctor said, and had to stay on bed for some time, but that will give me all the time I need to show him what he has missed out for taking this story down, so for the time being please support me ^^ Okay?**

**P/S: Red Raven if you are reading this, can you please answer my private message? You seem to know a lot about DMC so I can really use your help with this story, don't mind my brother cause as soon as he recovered I am going to kick his ass for being such a child.**

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**Summary: After the event at Red Grave, Nero was left with not just the responsibility of dealing with the abnormal activities of demons all around the world, but also several questions that involved the other side his family… If Vergil was his father, then who was his mother? Who in her right mind could see the good in his father, and love a power hungry demon like him? **

**This is the first book of a long series. **

**This work is inspirited by Devil May Cry: The Godly Demon written by Shocknawe 425. I have asked him permission to use some of the basic ideas of his story.**

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"Nero" Normal Speech.

'_Nero_' Normal Thought.

"_**Red Queen**_" Magic/Jutsu/Technique.

"**Devil Trigger**" Demon/Monster Normal Speech.

'_**Devil Trigger**_' Demon/Monster Thought.

**Son of the Hearth**

**Chapter 1**

_It's because you're here we can go._

_I won't lose next time. Hold onto that until then._

"What the…" A violent shake woke Nero up from his sleep, his head smashing onto the ceiling of the RV he was in. As he growled in annoyance, he could hear the laughter of his companion, a short but rather attractive young woman with light tan skin and black, wavy, waist-length hair that she tied in a ponytail. She wore a black studded headband and red-rimmed glasses, and her outfit consisted of a white tank top showing her midriff covered with a dark-yellow sleeveless jacket that resembled welding cape sleeve, blue denim shorts with a brown worker belt which carried a pair of brown leather gloves and several tools. She finished her outfit with a pair of brown leather cowgirl boots. "You think that's funny?" He asked while looking at the female driver, who continued to laugh for a good ten seconds.

"That's what you get for not putting on the seatbelt." She said, smirking a bit.

"I will, if there is a fucking one here." Nero told her, pointing at the area beside his seat before standing up and making his way to the back of the RV, heading into the bathroom near Nico's workshop to wash his face. He was not in the mood to have one of those banters with his companion. He could still hear their voice in his head, the voices of Dante and Vergil before they both went to the Underworld. Even two weeks after the event at Red Grave City, he still found it hard to believe that Dante was his uncle and Vergil, the true identity of V and Urizen, was his father, making him a spawn of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, the demon who betrayed his own kin for the sake of humanity.

Nero cleaned his face with a towel and looked at himself in the mirror. He did not want to admit it but ever since he knew Vergil was his father, he couldn't help but see himself becoming more and more like his father, in appearance of course. His white hair had grown noticeably longer, but still kept its faux-hawk like style. He still wore his dark blue hooded jacket over the tattered dark shirt underneath, and from what he had learnt from Trish, the woman who was now in charge of Dante's original shop, blue had always been his father's signature color, making it another similarity between him and Vergil, because blue was his favorite color, beside red. "Fuck you old man." The white haired young man growled as he walked out of the bathroom and returned to his seat, waving his hand in front of his face when he realized Nico was once again smoking, his nose catching the unpleasant smell of her cigarette "Seriously, do you have to do that in here? Smell like the same ass as the last time." He asked and lowered the mirror to get some fresh air, poking his head out of the RV and looking at the trees on his side of the road. "Are we there yet?"

"Hold your horse, cowboy. We still have a long way to go." Keeping her eyes on the road, Nico told him before she asked in interest "Have you ever been to Long Island before?"

"Nah, you?" He asked, turning his head around to look at Nico.

"Nope, but grandmother said she came here every summer when she was young." Nero shrugged and sat back down his seat, reaching his hand out for the brown, gold-embroidered book with a large "V" insignia in the cover on the dashboard. "You're reading that book again?"

"Yeah, I'm just… trying to understand my old man." Nero answered honestly, even though he could not understand a thing that was written inside. He knew V greatly treasured his book of poems by William Blake, as his original-self Vergil possessed it since he was a young boy. However, Nero couldn't help but feel that there was more to the book than it appeared, because if not then his father would never give it to him before leaving to seal the portal connecting the human world and the Underworld. "Same old craps." He read a few lines and threw the book back to where he had put it.

"You know, it's kinda hard for me to believe that there was a woman who could fall in love with your father, considering all the horrible acts that he had done to obtain powers, unless of course, she did not know who he was… and was into tentacles."

"Can't agree more." Nero replied as he put one foot on the dashboard and leaned his head back, closing his eyes. It was hard for him to believe that too, that there had been a woman out there capable of seeing the good in his father, the V in him, and giving him a son, unless of course, she did not know who he was and was into men like him (he tried to not think about the tentacles, but Nico did have a point when she pointed that out).

He did not know who his mother was, not that it was important anymore, but she had to have been a citizen of Fortuna, where most people had called her a prostitute because she had a son with an unknown man and left her child at the orphanage before their teeth was punched right into their fucking skulls. Having grown up with a girl like Kyrie at his side, Nero had come to understand that for whatever reason his mother had abandoned him, it had to be a reason that she could not avoid. No one did something without a reason, and no mother wanted to leave their newborn child.

"Hey Lizard boy." Nico called, making Nero open one of his eye to look at her and see her holding out the phone to him "It's Kyrie."

"Thank you. Hey Kyrie, how are you doing?" A smile made it to his face as he grabbed the phone from Nico's hand and held it near his ear, hearing the voice of his girlfriend on the other side of the line while ignoring the sly smirk Nico was giving him.

Their journey continued like that for another two hours before Nico decided to make a stop at a local gas station to refuel the truck, giving Nero time to think about his job while shopping for some snacks for the trip. He was currently tracking down a group of demons heading in Long Island on a request of a client that had contacted Morison and asked the man to look for a devil hunter who could eliminate them as quickly as possible before they could cause serious troubles to the local people. Because both Trish and Lady were busy with their own contracts at the time, Morison had no other choice but call Nero, telling him to be careful once he had finished with all the important details. That was not necessary, but Nero knew the man only meant well. Dante had been the only reason the demons hadn't overrun the human world yet, and when the news about the legendary devil hunter being trapped in the underworld got out, even the stupidest ones knew there wasn't a better time for them make their moves, causing chaos all around the world.

"I will take all of these please." Nero said as he returned and put the basket containing the snacks he had chosen on the counter, not noticing a person pushing the door open and stumbling into the shop until the female shopkeeper made a sound in horror while looking away from him. "What the…" Looking to the side, Nero widened his eyes when he saw a young girl, probably around thirteen and fourteen year old standing with a broken bow and quiver of silver arrows in her hands and behind her back, her body covering in her blood. "Hey, watch out!" Quickly, Nero rushed toward her and caught the girl with his arms before she could fall on her face. He looked at the bleeding wounds on her body, and could immediately tell they were not caused by humans. "Call 911!" He told the shopkeeper and then turned back to the girl in his arms. "Hang on, help is…"

But before he could finish his sentence, the girl reached her hand up and grabbed the collar of his shirt, looking straight into his eyes. Blood were still flowing out from her mouth and wounds, but she did her best to speak "You… have to tell… Lady Artemis… Echid…na." She coughed, tears slowly falling from her eyes "I'm… sorry… milady…" With that, her grip around his collar loosened, and her arm fell lifelessly onto the bloody floor beneath them.

Nero could only look at her in silence.

"Nero?" The white haired demon hunter turned his head around and looked at Nico, who was standing at the door with her eyes widening in surprise. Nero did not say anything, could only shake his head at her.

For some reason, he had a very bad feeling about the upcoming mission.

_Line Break_

"So according to my father's research," Nico said while driving the RV with one hand, the other holding a book. Nero was sitting on his usual seat beside her, with his head leaning on the back of his hand "Echidna was a giant serpent demoness that once took over the Mitis Forest, where she flew around and scattered her Chimera seeds on the forest floor that she planned to use to create a world where demons would prosper, before you encountered her and Dante put a stop to her."

"So that means she's dead?" Nero asked, still remembered that snake demoness "That doesn't make any sense. How could a dead one return and attack that girl?"

"Well, don't ask me." She answered him with a frown, crossing her arms on her chest "However, I do know that Artemis, the other one she has been talking about, is a goddess."

"A goddess?" The devil hunter asked, raising his eyebrow in surprise "According to what?"

"According to this." Nico said and tossed him another book that she picked up from the dashboard, nearly hitting him in the face. The white haired young man took a look at the title, and looked back at the female weapon-smith in annoyance "Greek Mythology? Really?"

"From what I learnt, Artemis is the Greek virgin goddess of the hunt, wilderness, wild animal, the Moon, chastity, and childbirth."

"Wait, how can a goddess of chastity can be a goddess of childbirth at the same time?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Nico retorted with her own question "Anyway, according to some myths about her, Artemis has a group of female attendants known as the Hunters of Artemis, a group of young women that have turned their back from the company of men and have their loyalty to the goddess."

"So you think that girl is a hunter?" He asked "And then these… Hunters of Artemis or whatever… are real? And the goddess is also real?" with each questions, Nico answered him with a nod of her head. Even saying that, Nero had to admit that was not the craziest thing he had ever heard, or concluded. After all, he was living in a world where a demon would appear out of nowhere, self-proclaimed himself the king of all demons with the intention to take over the human world so that it might rule over humans.

"Greek Mythology does have an Echidna as well, in case you are wondering, she is considered the mother of all monsters in there." Nero nodded his head in understanding before opening the book in his hand and gave the first few lines a read "This shit is so fucked up, but at least I can understand, unlike V's book." The devil hunter muttered while flipping through some pages, before he came to a sudden stop at a particular chapter:

Hestia.

Line Break

Artemis was not in a good mood.

She and her hunters were currently tracking down a group of monsters that had been gathering near Long Island, not too far away from the magical border of Camp Half-Blood on her father's request. As they travelled, they were ambushed by all sorts of monsters, from small armies consisting of Cyclops and Dracaena to the much more powerful ones like the Drakons and Hellhounds of the Underworlds. A number of hunters were injured, but Artemis had been very thankful that none of her sisters had fallen. The Hunt was a flawless fighting unit, as they were stronger, faster, and more accurate than the average demigod, nymph or mortal, but sometimes there were monsters that were too powerful even for her greatest hunters to handle by themselves, and that was when Artemis came in, picking out the most dangerous targets and usually fighting them alone, so that her hunters would not get hurt.

For three months, the hunters had been on the move, moving from hunt to hunt without break. Artemis had also not picked up a single new recruit, believing that there was no reason for her to bring in inexperienced girls when they kept going on dangerous missions for Olympus like this one. It had been the most dangerous series of hunts they had taken in a very long time. For an unknown reason, monsters had become a lot more active recently, attacking everyone, even mortals, and making it even harder for demigods to arrive at Camp Half-Blood.

Artemis had never seen such behaviors from them since the moment she started hunting with her mother's bow and arrows. Monsters were primal creatures, but Artemis knew better than anyone that they were not stupid. They would never attack mortals on sight, because they had no reason to do so, and let them move on with their life, but lately, there was news about them attacking towns and villages in large numbers. Zeus was worried that someone was using them to cause chaos all around the world, but Artemis couldn't help but feel that her father knew much more than that, because for once he did not take it too seriously like he had done in the past. Whenever monsters became too much of a trouble, he would summon Athena and order her to study them, see if they were working for someone with the intention to create an army to go against Olympus. That had happened before, several times even, and it was all thank to her sister they had been able to prevent wars before it broke out, but now, when monsters started leaving their marks all over the world, as far as she knew, Athena was not called.

"Have the scouts returned?" Artemis asked as she walked out of her tent and asked the nearest hunter, who shook her head in response. "I see…" Frowning, Artemis nodded her head thankfully at the girl and walked to the border of the camp, where a group of girls were feeding their hunting wolves treats. It'd been hours since they left, and the scouting unit had never taken so much time to scout Long Island in the past.

"Zoe." She called, and almost instantly a hunter came to stand at her side. She was a tall, graceful and gorgeously beautiful young woman, with dark brown eyes, copper-colored skin and long, dark hair that was braid with a silver bracelet. Like every hunter of the Hunt, she was dressed in silver, as her outfit consisted of a white shirt, silver jacket, silvery camo pants and black combat boots. She also carried a silver bow and wore a quiver full of silver arrows on her back. Her name was Zoe Nightshade, and she was a loyal lieutenant to Artemis, having served the goddess as one of her most trusted hunter in over two thousand years.

"My lady?" She asked, lowering her head a bit to greet the auburn-haired goddess, who was taking on an appearance that looked even younger than she was, but it was the average age of her hunters and all young maidens for whom she was patron before they became smitten with boys.

"How is the injured doing?" She asked in concern. She cared for her hunters greatly, because when a young maiden became a member of the Hunt, they became her maidservants, her companions, her sisters in arms and in a way, they became the daughters that she would never have on her own.

"They are ready to continue, my lady," Zoe answered.

Artemis nodded her head in understanding, but still, she said "I want them to remain here. You and I will head out with a few others. I have a feeling that the hunt ahead of us will be the most dangerous." Zoe widened her eyes in surprise. It was rare for her mistress to give out that order. "You come back to camp and select the ones you want to come with us on this hunt. It's time for us to head out." She told her lieutenant "The sooner we can get this done, the better."

"Yes, I understand." Zoe nodded her head and headed back to the camp, leaving Artemis behind to think about every possible outcome of the upcoming battle.

_Line Break_

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Shut the fuck up you lizard asshole! We'll be there when I say we are, got it!?"

"There it is." Nero chuckled in satisfaction as he leaned his head back and put one foot on the dashboard before him "Just try to stir things up a little bit. You're awfully quiet, Nico." He said, turning to grin at his companion, who hadn't talked much since they left that gas station. Nero had wanted to give the hunter a proper burial, but the local authorities had arrived and taken over before he could do that. The cops had asked them a few things, and the two had told them everything they knew about the girl but decided to leave out their devil hunting business. It was fortunate that they had that clerk at the gas station to testify for them, or else they would not be able to leave the area and continue their journey any time soon.

"Just… thinking you know, about that girl." Nico said while focusing on driving to their destination. It should not take much more time for them to get there.

"So you think the goddess Artemis and monster Echidna are real?" Nero questioned, remembering what he had read in the book Nico had given him.

"Duh, we're living in a world where your father and uncle are half-demons, and we are going on a demon hunting trip to earn some cash. The gods and their monsters being real is not the hardest thing to believe." The female gunsmith reasoned, something that Nero had to admit was entirely not impossible "Some myths are based on true stories after all."

"Some, let's hope not all because what I saw in that book were a bunch of horseshits anyway." Nero pointed out. He read, but Nero would never call himself a bookworm as that had been Kyrie's job when the two of them were younger. He had read many stories and knew human imaginations truly knew no boundaries, but what he found in Greek Mythology was fucked up on so many levels. There was a story about a human, Pasiphae, and a white bull. The sea god Poseidon sent the white bull to Pasiphae's husband King Minos for him to sacrifice in his honour, but King Minos did not sacrifice the bull because he saw that the bull had the most beautiful fur that he had ever seen and let the bull live. Mad with rage and anger that Minos had not sacrificed the bull, he cursed Minos by having Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull and when Poseidon had left for Olympus, Pasiphae ordered Daedalus to make a fake cow for her to hide inside and lure it. The result of their union was the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.

There was another story that he remembered very well, and it was about the goddess Artemis. When Queen Niobe of Thebes insulted her mother Leto by saying her children were more numerous and better overall, an enraged Artemis shot arrows at Niobe's seven daughters, while Apollo shot arrows at Niobe's seven sons, killing them all in the process. In an act of what they called mercy, the gods only left alive to the Queen's youngest daughter, but turned Niobe into stone… and that wasn't even the end of it.

However, there were some deities that were okay in his book, and one of them was the Goddess of the Hearth Hestia, her stories happened to be the first that he read. She was the eldest child of Kronos and Rhea, the Greek virgin goddess of the hearth, home, the right ordering of domesticity and family. Hestia loved her siblings and their children dearly and her fondest wish was that her entire family was able to get along, despite the fact that they had never been and always head to head with each other in Greek Mythology, especially during the Trojan War. Still, that made her the only one to have an amicable relationship with every other Olympian, even the vain Apollo, the conceited Aphrodite, the grim Hades and the violent Ares, to the point everyone in her family also watched out for her when they could, even issuing severe punishment on her behalf on those who offended her, like Priapus, a minor god of vegetation who had been beaten up harshly by almost every god and goddess because he tried to rape her. The punishment was harsh, but Nero had to admit that he deserved worse.

"Hey Nero, we're here… woah." Nero was snapped out of his thought when Nico spoke up to inform him about their arrival and stopped the van at the entrance leading into a small town before making a sound in surprise when she saw that there were no one on the street at the moment, making the whole town awfully quiet, and look abandoned. "Now this reminds me of Red Grave." She commented while looking around with Nero doing the same thing, double-checking the map to make sure that they had come to the right place.

"Let's hope that it's not," Nero said as he stood up and walked to the back of the devil may cry van to pick up his sword, Red Queen. Nico had been working on a few modifications to make it even more powerful, but overall his most trusted sword still had an ornately etched base, and appeared to be modeled after the German Great Knife, with its most unique feature was the motorcycle-like gear shift around the handle that, when pulled, would spray a flammable propellant across the blade, increasing the destructive power of his already immensely powerful strikes. On the other hand, his customized firearm Blue Rose that he always carried in the gun holster behind his back, still remained pretty much the same, a heavily modified Smith and Wesson Model 500 double-action revolver with an extra barrel underneath the normal one, allowing him to fire two bullets per shot, and a moulded wooden grip and an intricate blue rose design carved into the right side of the gun, hence the name of it. "It's time to get back to work," Nero said as he sheathed his sword behind his back.

"Hold your horse cowboy, I have something for you," Nico told him as she went behind her worktable and showed him a new, but not unfamiliar Devil Breaker.

"Gerbera? Now we're talking." The devil hunter commented with a small smirk. The Devil Breakers had been artificial appendages with several unique and special abilities created by Nico to help Nero on his missions to eliminate demons ever since his Devil Bringer arm was ripped off by his father. However, after the event of Red Grave, the expert craftswoman had started making the new gauntlet versions of the old Devil Breakers for his new arm, allowing him to wear them into battles. "So how much does it cost?" Nero asked, reaching his hand around for his wallet.

"Ah, I see… you are starting to understand." Nico said smugly as she put the Devil Breaker on the table between them "Don't worry about it. This one is on the house. It's the prototype of the old Gerbera, so I will need you to test it out first before I can decide how much it's worth." Nico said before she turned around to show him a series of blue devil breakers, the Overtunes, smirking evilly "These babies, however, will cost you five hundred, each."

"Ugh…" Nero growled in annoyance before pulling out the necessary money for a demon shocker "I will take one. Man, I am not being paid enough for this." Still, the devil hunter had to admit with his new arm and new power he no longer found the Devil Breakers as useful as before. The only reason he was still using them was that Nico said she had a great plan for the new version of the Devil Breakers in the future, and needed someone to test the gauntlets out without worrying about them exploding in their face.

"Remember…"

"It's a work of art, I gotcha." Nero said mockingly before Nico could continue, grabbing the two devil breakers on the table and strapping them to his belt.

"… and it's ain't complete without you." The craftswoman smirked, pointing her hand at him. "So be careful out there." Nico finished, no longer smiling and her tone became a bit more serious than usual.

"Thank you, Nico." Giving her a wry smile, Nero nodded his head and turned around to leave, walking out of the van and cracking his neck a bit before he headed into the town. "Now where is everyone?" The devil hunter couldn't help but wonder, picking up the pace as he looked for Groove Street, which was where his client's relatives lived. The town did not look big, but Nero knew he had to start somewhere or else he would not be able to return to his annoying companion before dinner.

"Uhm… just like that babe… you are turning me on so much."

"What… the… fuck?" Stopping in his tracks when he heard that Nero turned his head to the side and was treated to a very odd sight of a couple heavily making out with each other near the entrance leading to a dark alley, which would have been normal if they were not the first people that Nero had seen in the town. The man was being pinned against the wall, his hands roaming around the woman's backside while the two were sharing a hot and passionate kiss with each other. They continued to do that for another ten second or so, and when Nero was about to decide that the couple was not worth his time, the woman did something unexpected.

She pulled back from the man's lips and then shot her head toward his neck, doing something that Nero did not know because her hair was in the way, but he could see the man widen his eyes in shock and then horror. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound was able to come out. With his hands, he tried to push the woman away, but she continued to remain firmly where she was, appearing to be much stronger than she looked. Like that, it did not take it long for the man to go limp, and fall to the ground with a dull thud.

"That was so delicious." The woman moaned as she wiped her mouth with the back of her head while standing facing away from Nero. Her voice was soft and silky, almost sickeningly sweet "Hum, what's this strong scent?" She wondered aloud and turned around to look at Nero, who had one hand reached behind his back for Blue Rose. She looked at him for a second, smiling seductively before approaching him in a way that made her blonde hair sweep alluring from side to side. "Hey there handsome, you…" But before she could take another step closer to Nero, the devil hunter pulled out his gun and pointed the barrels at her forehead.

When Nero was about to pull the trigger, he sensed another woman lunging at him from behind him and instantly turned his body around to dodge, slamming the heel of his boot into her stomach before she could scratch him with her hands, sending her crashing into the first woman. Unlike the first who appeared to have a perfect human form, she had a very distinct appearance, most notably due to her half human/half-demon characteristics, with pale white skin, red eyes and flaming hair. Her shoulders and arms were concealed by a jacket with flaring sleeves, which covered most of her hands that assumed the form of sharp and scaly talons. One of her legs was of a donkey while the other one was a prosthetic one made of bronze.

"Now, didn't your mother teach you not to creep up on other people?" Nero mocked while pointing Blue Rose at the two women who were picking themselves up, snarling angrily at him. The white-haired devil hunter then looked around and could see several more women like the two standing on the houses and buildings in the area, looking down at Nero with hunger in their eyes. "What is this? The trophy wives club meeting? I know that I look great and all, but I am taken… and there is only so much a man can do to this many ladies."

"You…" The first demoness snarled, no longer talking to him with that sickening sweet voice of hers "What are you? You smell like a demigod, but why do you have the scent of a demon?" Nero raised his hand above his head and took a sniff at his shirt, wincing when he realized how bad he smelt.

"Well, maybe because I killed a lot of you recently," Nero answered as he looked around. It appeared that he was outnumbered, as usual. "I don't suppose any of you vampire ladies can tell me where Groove Street is, can't you? I am new in town." He asked, smirking as he unsheathed Red Queen from his back and lowered it down to the ground, making the demons around him stop moving and step back rather nervously. However, they quickly hid their surprise and started circling around the devil hunter, blocking every possible escape route that Nero could take.

Little did they know that they would soon be the ones who have to take those escape routes, not him.

Line Break

"What's wrong milady?" Zoe asked quietly as she came to stand beside Artemis, who had come to a stop and was now crouching on the ground in front of her and the chosen group of the twelve most skilled and experienced hunters.

Artemis' eyes narrowed as she put her hand on the ground and looked at the town in front of her, saying "There is something very powerful nearby, more powerful than what we have been hunting." She said, making Zoe look on in surprise. She was about to respond when suddenly a hunter named Phoebe exclaimed in alarm and fired a silver arrow at the Hellhound that tried to attack them from above, making it dissolve into golden dust faster than a normal human eye could blink. It did not take it long for the other monsters to make themselves known to Artemis and the Hunt, as a Drakon that was over two hundred feet long bursting out from the ground beneath them. From the hole that it made on the ground, monsters, a small army of Cyclops, Dracaena and Empousai rushed out and grouped up with the Drakon around the hunters, each one of them was heavily armed with weapons made of celestial bronze. "Stray strong, sisters!" Artemis shouted as she removed her silver bow from her back and notched it with an arrow, aiming at it the Drakon that was baring its fangs at her. Zoe and the other Hunters also back down and gathered around their mistress, forming a battle formation with their backs to each other that left no opening for any monster to catch them by surprise.

"What do we have here?" A loud, rumbling voice could be heard, and the monsters parted away to reveal a monstrous, and extremely fat woman in a denim dress to step forward, smiling down at Artemis, who did not take much time to recognize the mother of all monsters standing before her. "It's the little moon and her stars. It's been a while since the last time I met you, Artemis." She said, her reptilian tongue slithered between her lips in a manner not unlike a snake as she spoke.

"Echidna." She stated fearlessly "Where is your pet son Chimera? I thought it could never leave its mother's side?"

"My son is out hunting, dear… like how he hunted down those hunters of yours." Artemis' ichor turned cold when she heard those words, and to further proved her point Echidna reached her hand into the handbag that she wore around her left arm and pulled out the bleeding head of one of her sisters, a member of the scouting unit Artemis had sent out earlier that day, making the hunters who were watching to almost drop their weapons in shock. "Oh my, say hello to your mistress dear. Didn't you cry her name and ask to meet her while my son was feasting on your flesh?" She asked mockingly, faking a much younger tone while shaking the head around as a mercury-like tear fell from Artemis' silver eyes. Echidna then tossed the head at Artemis' feet before saying "Wanna guess what else I have in my handbag?"

"DAMN YOU!" For the first time in centuries, Artemis lost control over her emotion and roared in anger, firing a barrage of silver arrows at Echidna faster than a machine could do with bullets, before launching herself at the mother of all monsters, transforming into a wild board that swung her claw down the face of the monster. Echidna roared in pain as Artemis scratched her across the face, but she was able to grab the moon goddess by her now oversized body and tossed her to the nearest building with so much force when she crashed the entire building broke down and collapsed around her.

"Kill the hunters. I will take care of this myself." Echidna snarled while blood was flowing down from the wounds on her face. There was another explosion that sent the broken pieces of the building away as Artemis stood up and tossed her quiver of normal arrows away while being shrouded in a silver aura. In her hand was no longer the bow that she used for hunting, but her godly possession, a silver bow that the Elder Cyclops made for her when she became an Olympian, capable of forming powerful arrows that she could fire with destructive power on its own. "Come, little goddess, let's see if you are still as powerful as the last time." With that said, Echidna transformed, reverting back to her true form. In such her true form, she still had a human head, but the rest of her body was snake-like, growing even larger in size. Her tongue was forked and her teeth were replaced by fangs. Her skin and eyes also resembled a reptile's as her eyes were sideways slits and her skin was bright green and scaly..

_Line Break_

"What a pain!" Nero commented as he entered the telephone booth and dialled Nico's number. In his hand was a piece of the broken Gerbera Devil Breaker he had received from Nico earlier. It had functioned the way he had expected it to be, exploding right into his face when he tried to launch into the air. "Hey Nico, your fucking gauntlet blew up again."

"Wut? I was sure to tone down the power a bit this time? You sure you didn't do anything?!" He heard the craftswoman screamed, making him move his head back a bit.

"Like hell I did." The devil hunter said while rubbing his eyes "Look, you're up. Think you can find me?"

"Duh." was her reply before the call was ended. Nero stepped out of the telephone booth and looked around while debating whether or not he should wait for Nico to arrive. She had never had trouble finding him, no matter where he was, in the middle of a forest or inside the roots of a giant demon tree. It made him think that she put a tracker on him or at least on the Devil Breaker.

"HELP ME!" Before he could make the final decision, Nero heard a scream and snapped his head to see a man running toward him from the other side of the street while being chased by a giant creature. At first, Nero could have sworn he saw an oversized Chihuahua, but as it drew closer, the creature's form shifted before his eyes, and it became a monstrous monster wearing a rhinestone dog collar, with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the head of said creature sticking out from its back, a blood-caked mane, and a ten-foot-long diamondback snake-headed tail which grew out of its behind.

Without the need to think, Nero pulled out his gun and channelled his demonic energy into it, waiting until it glowed to take the shot. The bullets brimming with his power hit the monster just before it was about to claim its massive jaw around its prey, and while they didn't seem to do any damage, they were powerful enough to knock the monster down, causing it to roll on the ground a few times before it was able to get back to its feet right in front of Nero, unleashing a powerful roar at him with the lion head.

"Woo… you need some mints, bud." Nero said while waving his hand around in front of his face. The monster unleashed another roar before firing a ball of fire from its mouth, blasting the entire area where Nero was standing away. When the fire was clear, however, the monster couldn't see Nero anywhere. "Let's see…" Nero said as he landed one foot on the area between its lion and goat head, looking at the collar its wear around its neck "Chimera… hold on, you are not THAT Chimera, aren't you?" the devil hunter asked in surprise, before pushing back to avoid the wave of fire that was fired from the head on the back, and then leaping into the air to dodge the snake/tail that came at him from behind, flipping around in the air before landing behind the monster.

The Chimera turned around and tried to lunge at Nero, only for him to unsheathe his sword from his back, and crouched his head down to block its claws with the flat side of Red Queen before using its momentum to hurl the monster away, sending it crashing into a nearby truck.

Seeing that it was clearly at a disadvantage, the monster turned around and ran away, but Nero did not let it escape that easily and he wasted no time to chase after the Chimera, running at the speed that allowed him to match the monster. "Oh no, you are not going anywhere." He cried, and fired empowered shots at the Chimera, drawing its attention. The goat head fired another fireball at Nero, only for the devil hunter to dodge with his whole body down, using Red Queen to gliding several feet on the ground before leaping into the air, landing horizontally on the wall of a building before launching back down toward the Chimera while spinning around, revving up the engine of his sword and unleashing a wave of fire that, when combined with his attack, becoming a tornado of fire that slammed into the monster, violently slashing its torso and knocking the Chimera onto its side. All three heads roared in pain, and the snakehead tried to bite him, but Nero was faster and he stood up before it could land its attack, thrusting the barrel of Blue Rose into its mouth and pulling the trigger, blasting the snake head off with two empowered bullets.

"NOOOOOO!" He heard a cry and turned around to see a massive snake monster with the human head of a fat woman looking at him. There was a girl holding a silvery bow standing not too far from it, and she was also staring at Nero with shock in her eyes. Not being a pedophile or anything because she only looked twelve or thirteen, but Nero had to admit that she was possibly the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and very strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was so beautiful it made Nero catch my breath, but her expression was also stern and dangerous. "You, how dare you hurt my son?!" The snake monster cried, making Nero wolf-whistle in mocking amazement.

"This is your son? Now you are making me want to meet the father." Nero finished as the Chimera stood up, knocking Nero from its bleeding body and sending him into the air, but it was easy for the devil hunter easily to return to the ground, standing with his sword on his back not too far away from the auburn-haired girl. "Damn, there's a whole party going on here." That statement came out of his mouth as he put Red Queen on his shoulder and looked around. There were more girls in silver fighting monsters across the area with bows, arrows and also hunting knives.

"It's okay sonny, mommy will kill the one that tried to hurt you," Echidna said to the Chimera as it came to stand at her side and acted like, in Nero's opinion, an oversized Chihuahua, like how it first appeared to him. "You will pay for this, you insolent demigod!"

"That's the second time someone called me that today," Nero said but made no more comment because Echidna suddenly threw herself at him, much faster than how her son could do. However, before she could reach the devil hunter, who casually sheathed his sword onto his back much to the surprise of the girls in the area, the Devil May Cry van shot out from the hole that Nero had created on the building with the Chimera, crashing into Echidna from the side with such force that it knocked her away from Nero before flipping into the air and then landing back down on its wheels right in front of the devil hunter, who hadn't moved an inch unlike the auburn-haired girl who had moved back in caution. "Now that's how you make an entrance." He smirked, pointing his hand at Nico as she poked her head out of the van and threw him a new Gerbera Devil Breaker.

"This is for you, asshole. Remember you have to pay for that one once this is over." The craftswoman told him before looking at Artemis and her hunters. "Hey Nero, who is this?"

"No idea, but get them out of here." The devil hunter said as he turned around and made his way fearlessly toward Echidna and her son, the Chimera, thrusting his right arm into the Devil Breaker. Moving his fingers around a bit to test its movements, Nero reached his hand up to grab the handle of Red Queen and unsheathed it from his back "So…" The grandson of the legendary Dark Knight Sparda began as he looked at all the monsters standing before him and turned his sword around to stab it down in front of him "Let's just get right into the party, shall we?" Nero announced, and revved up the engine of Red Queen, dosing the whole blade in fire.

Artemis could hardly believe what she was watching.

The Chimera roared and its mother snarled, sending the first wave of monsters at the young man, Nero, standing before them from every direction while ignoring Zoe and the other hunters. The blue cladded swordsman pulled out a white gun, a customized double-action revolver with an extra barrel underneath, from the holster that he wore behind his back, firing a full round of bullets at the monsters running at him, killing three Empousai in the process as each and every bullet was shot in pair with the power of an anti-material sniper rifle, and the precision and accuracy that rivaled even what her best hunters could do with their bows and arrows. However, as she and her hunter had expected, it did not take it long for the gun to run out of bullets. Artemis did not have to be an expert in weapons like her least favourite brother Ares to know even a modified revolver could only hold six at a time, and he had fired all six of them in less than a second, giving the monster an opening to circle around him.

How he was able to do that without worrying about the recoil was beyond her.

A dracaena slithered her way around Nero, and raised her mace to strike him down from behind, but Nero evaded by performing an acrobatic jump to the side, leaving a faint shadow where he once stood before tossing a full set of bullets into the air behind his back and pushing the cylinder of his firearm to the side to throw the empty cartridge cases out at the same time with his body crouching low. Standing up and holding his gun horizontally, Nero then made a full spin and, much to everyone's surprise and amazement, slid all six bullets perfectly into the cylinder while it was still in midair, loading his gun and pulling the trigger as soon as the barrels were pointed between the dracaena's eyes, blowing her head into golden dust before the rest of the reptilian body soon followed.

"WHOO YEAH! Now that's what I called smoking sexy!" Artemis heard his female companion shouted and saw her moving back and fore on the window of her van, with her arms waving above her head like a cheerleader while cheering for Nero.

"Shut up Nico, if you are not going to help me here then keep your fucking voice down, do not attract their attention!" Nero shouted and pointed his hand at her, before he fired another shot without even looking, killing the Empousai that tried to sneak up on him with her bronze sword.

"Sorry asshole, can't hear ya!" the female craftswoman mocked, but Nero decided to ignore her attempt to annoy him. Turning his attention back to the monsters, the white-haired young man then ran to his sword and yanked it up, having no problem holding it with only one hand, before swinging it down, slashing a Cyclops standing in front of him with its club raised above its head, knocking the monster back with a bloody gash that traveled across its oversized body. Artemis and the hunters continued to watch on as he hacked and slashed his way through the wave of monsters, dashing back and fore between them with his sword leading the charge, wasting no more than a second to down a monster before moving onto the next target.

"**Kill him! Kill that insolent brat!**" Echidna yelled and the Drakon finally joined the battle, charging at Nero while violently knocking the other monsters out of its way. Nero then turned his head and smirked at the approaching Drakon, waiting for the moment it was about to reach him to take one step back and then rush forward to slash his sword up, revving up the engine of Red Queen to increase the power of the blow. The Drakon was launched into the air while roaring in pain much to the shock of Artemis and her hunters, but Nero did not stop there and continued to follow it, spinning around repeatedly and continuously revving the motorcycle engine of red queen, creating a spinning flame blade that sent the giant monster so high up into the air its tail couldn't touch the ground. Smirking, Nero then turned his blade upside down and performed a violent descending slash down the Drakon's head, splitting it right down the middle before continuing to travel down until he touched the ground, unleashing a powerful explosion of fire with the Exceed system of Red Queen, blowing the monsters in the area away and possibly killing several of them in the process.

"Hey, fat ass!" Picking up Red Queen, Nero then shouted and pointed his sword at the stunned Echidna as the Drakon fell down dead behind him with its body slowly dissolving into golden dust until only a huge skeleton remained. "You and the Chihuahua aren't going to join? It'll be really good for you. You know… move around, exercise a little with your son. I am sure at the end of this you will be able to lose some weight." The devil hunter taunted and to further annoy her, he pulled out his gun and shot the last two bullets that he had in Blue Rose at her forehead. He was able to knock her head back a little, like a punch to the face but overall wasn't able to cause any real damage, not even a scratch, to her head. "Guess you are so fat not even my bullets can penetrate you… hot damn, your husband must have a drill for a dick."

"**HOW DARE YOU! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?**" Echidna roared in anger, and she was followed by her son.

"I am!" Nero smirked with his arms extending out dramatically.

"**DIE!**" with that, Echidna rushed at Nero to attack him. When the mother of all monsters was only a foot away from him, Nero thrust the palm of his Overtune Devil Breaker forward and unleashed an electrical burst at Echidna that stopped her on her track. The electrical pulse shocked her through her core, blurring her vision for a moment. When she could finally see clearly again, her eyes became even redder with rage as she saw Nero giving her the middle finger. The Chimera ran past her and spat its venom at Nero with the snakehead, but the devil hunter easily dodged the attack by rolling to the side.

Just when Nero was about to finish his dodge roll and stand up, he felt someone stepping onto his back and looked up to see the auburn-haired girl leaping over his head, using him as a launch pad to jump even higher into the air before firing an arrow into the Chimera's left eye, making it howl in pain and stumbling back beside its mother. "Stand back, these two are my preys," Artemis said in a calm tone as she landed gracefully down before Nero.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nero asked, arching an eyebrow in surprise "What do you think you are doing? Why are you still here?" He then snapped his head around to look at Nico, shouting "Nico! Didn't I tell you to get them out of here!?"

"They refused to leave." The expert craftswoman answered, shrugging her shoulders.

"Do I seriously have to do everything myself?" The devil hunter grumbled in annoyance as he turned his head back to look at the girl "Look kiddo, this is no place for…" But the girl had already rushed into battle with the mother and son monsters duo, firing silver arrows faster than the eye could blink at the both of them, before leaping at them, becoming a blur of silver as she fought with speed and grace that surpassed even the like of Trish "Okay…" her bow then became two hunting knives, each as long as her arm, and she used them to slash wildly at Echidna while dodging the Chimera's fireballs with unbelievable grace.

Then, to his surprise, she began to change form as she maneuvered. The girl became a tiger, a gazelle, a wolf and a falcon… using their natural advantages as her own in battle against the two monsters, before transforming back to her human form to deliver the most powerful blows. Nero looked behind him and saw the other hunters firing arrows at the other monsters that tried to aid Echidna and her son, aiming for their most vulnerable spots and taking them down with great accuracy. "Ah well… guess I am not needed here from the beginning." Nero muttered as he watched the girl fight and returned Blue Rose back to its gun holster "She got this. The hell is this kid anyway?" He couldn't help but wonder, his mind drifting back to the book he had spent his time reading earlier.

Hold on a second…

"No freaking way." He muttered, looking on in amazement as the girl leapt into the air and stabbed her hunting knives into Echidna's chest, causing the mother of all monsters to howl in pain while violently whipping her reptilian tail around, forcing Nero to take a step back to avoid it. She then pulled her weapons out, causing blood to shoot out from the wounds on Echidna's chest and transformed her knives back to their bow form, pulling the string and notching a silver arrow that appeared out of nowhere, before she fired it down the Chimera, blinding its other eye. She then landed both her foot on the lion head, and gracefully front flipped into the air, firing a volley of silver arrows at the goat head, before transforming her bow into the hunting knife, slashing the tail and beheading the snake from it. Landing gracefully on the ground, Artemis made her bow disappear as the Chimera fell down behind her, following by its mother in a massive pool of her own blood.

"Excuse me but… they aren't dead yet." Nero told her, but the girl shook her head.

"I did not want them to. Their deaths this time will be slow and painful." Artemis finished as she pulled out a normal hunting knife, but it still looked much sharper and dangerous than the normal ones. As Artemis walked around the Chimera and stomped her foot on the lion head, keeping the whole monstrous sized monster down with surprising strength for someone so small and had a slender build like her, Nero couldn't help but wonder what she meant when she said that. "This is for my sister," Artemis said, and raised the knife above her head, preparing to torture the beast until it regretted its existence.

But before she could do that, the hunting knife was shattered into million pieces and Artemis was knocked away from the Chimera by an invisible force, sending her into the air. The goddess was quick to recover, however, as she turned around in midair and landed gracefully down the spot a few feet away from Nero, looking hard at the figure standing near a building on the other side of the field, appearing to be a tall man wearing a formal black suit and an oddly looking beaver hat. He had one hand rested atop a gold cane while the other was being raised in the air, palm facing the direction Artemis had been earlier.

"Good evening." The man said in a smooth and formal tone, bowing his head low looking at Artemis "My most sincere apology for the sudden interruption, but I cannot allow you to kill Chimera. He's important to my experiment." He then turned to Echidna while casually walking his way toward her, his gold cane click-clacking on the ground as he walked "I am also here to retrieve Mrs Echidna. It's time for us to leave." He told the mother of all monsters as she tried to sit up.

"Like I am going to let you do that." Artemis immediately summoned her bow and fired a silver arrow at the man, only for him to raise his hand and stop the arrow in midair, before making it drop harmlessly onto the ground and disappear, causing the goddess look at him in surprise. No one had ever been able to stop the arrow of her godly weapon like that.

Echidna turned to give her a murderous glare, the mysterious man continued to ignore her and reached his hand into his suit's pocket as he came to stand beside Echidna, speaking with the mother of monsters "The preparation has been completed. It's all thanks to you that I can now begin the first test." He then pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to Echidna. It was an apple-like fruit that was brimming with human blood and almost sickening to look at with the amount of demonic energy it was emitting. Nero's blood turned cold when he recognized it. He had never actually seen it with his own eyes, but he had read more than enough notes that Nico had made about that thing to know very well what it was.

"Oh no… this isn't good," Nico said from where she was while watching the whole thing from her van.

It was none other than the demonic fruit of the Qliphoth.

"Where did you get that thing?" Nero instantly pulled out his gun and pointed the barrels at the man, realizing what had happened to the people of the town. Artemis took a glance at the young man, feeling a bit of a surprise by the sudden change in his tone and behavior, becoming much more mature than before in her opinion. The goddess of the hunt then turned her focus back to the object in the mysterious man's hand, because while she had no idea what it was, having never seen such thing in her life, she knew it was extremely dangerous. Artemis could feel some kind of dark energy coming from the thing, and it actually made her feel uneasy and a bit sick in the stomach. Also, there was no mistaking that the red liquid it was overflowing with was fresh human blood.

"**Give the fruit to my son.**" Echidna snarled in hatred "**If it can make him become as strong as you claim, then let my son have it… so he can kill all of them!**"

"Very well." and with that, he tossed the Qliphoth Fruit to the Chimera.

"No, don't!" Nero shot forward and ran as fast as he could toward the monster, trying to prevent it from eating the Qliphoth fruit. But he was a second too late because while it was blinded by Artemis' arrow, it could still hear what its mother was talking with the mysterious man. The Chimera wasted no time to open its mouth to receive the demonic fruit from him, and it swallowed the whole thing down in one go. "Shit." was the most intelligent word Nero could manage before his gun was knocked away from his hand and he was blown away as the area around the Chimera exploded, surrounding the monster in a dark aura of demonic energy and blocking it completely from sight.

Artemis was also being pushed back, but because she wasn't standing so close to the Chimera as Nero, she wasn't sent flying like him but still she was finding it hard to keep herself on her feet while holding both arms in front of her face to shield it from immense heat waves that were being released from the Chimera along with powerful bursts of dark energy. When she looked up, her eyes widened when she saw three giant pairs of glowing red eyes looking down at her from above.

"What the Hades is this…?"

When the wave of dark energy disappeared, the Chimera finally revealed itself before Artemis. While it still retained the front body of a lion, the Chimera's lower body was that of a dragon, with scaly lizard skin and long and sharp red claws. The goat head had somehow moved down from its back and was now standing beside its lion counterpart, topped with vicious looking horns and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Its back now had numerous spikes, reaching all the way down from the back to the end of its tail, which had also grown back into a king cobra instead of the rattlesnake. In addition to the changes, the Chimera had also become at least three times larger than it had been before, easily towering above every house near the battlefield.

Echidna and the mysterious man was nowhere to be seen.

The Chimera unleashed a roar and nearly knocked Artemis back with the shockwave it created. The monster then lunged at her, forcing Artemis to dodge to the side and causing the ground in the area to shake when its forepaws landed on the ground. Before the goddess could recover and make any counterattack, the cobra shot forward, baring its venomous fangs at Artemis, who raised her bows to block at the last seconds, her boots skidding back on the ground before she could push it away. Zoe and the hunters tried to aid their mistress by firing at the Chimera, but the arrows bounced right off, unable to leave even the smallest scratch on its hardened skin.

"Oh hell no!" Nico shouted and climbed back to the driver seat when she saw the Chimera turning its attention toward her and the hunter. Starting her van, she looked at Zoe and shouted as loud as she could "Get the fuck in. We need to get out of here! That thing is going to attack us!"

However, Zoe decided to ignore her and pulled out her hunting knife, realizing that her ranged weapon couldn't do anything to the Chimera. The others soon followed her example, but before the hunters could head into battle with their mistress, the goddess raised a hand to stop them and fired an arrow to the lion head of the monster to draw its attention back to her. Her arrow was able to pierce its skin, but overall it didn't do any real damage to the Chimera, which then turned and marched on toward Nico's van and the silver cladding hunters. "My lady, we can…"

"NO! Leave now!" Artemis shouted and ran after the Chimera, firing a volley of arrows at the three-headed monsters but she was unable to alter its course. Zoe and the hunters steeled their nerves and braced themselves to fight against the empowered monster.

"Oh no, you don't!" Returning to the battle, Nero came down from above and slammed his Devil Breaker into its head, activating its battery ability to unleash a massive electric burst. The head was knocked down, but the other one shot up and unleashed a wave of fire at the Devil Hunter, who immediately shot down with Red Queen at full charge, delivering a powerful cleave onto its head. At the same time, Artemis rushed toward it from behind, avoiding a stream of venom that was spat at her from the king cobra head, and wrapped her arms around the tail, pulling the massive monster back with her godly strength before swinging it around and throwing it away, but the Chimera was able to recover in midair and landed on the ground before it could crash into the building Artemis had intended to throw it into.

"Here," Artemis said as she tossed Nero Blue Rose, which she had picked up while chasing behind the Chimera. Catching it with one hand, a smirk made it to his face as Nero nodded his head at her to show Artemis his gratitude and reloaded his gun, normally this time, before going on ahead to fight the Chimera, firing several empowered shots at its heads. "No, stand down. I will handle it." She turned to Zoe and the other, speaking to them when she realized that they intended to follow her "The beast has become too powerful."

"But mistress, the boy…" Zoe tried to reason, but Artemis looked at her firmly.

"He seems to know what he is doing, and he's strong." She told her lieutenant as Nero shot into the air and landed on the beast back, where he started running around like it was solid ground "He dies, I don't care… but so many of our sisters have fallen today to that beast, I can't lose any more of you girls." She said, her shoulders in sadness, but only for a moment before she turned around and pulled back the string of her bow, notching a silver arrow "Stand back, Zoe. That's an order." With that, she charged into battle.

"Artemis…" Zoe said before gritting her teeth at Nero. Since the day she became lieutenant of the Hunt, Zoe had always been the first hunter to be chosen to follow her mistress into battle, to watch her back and fight alongside her no matter what foes and beasts they faced, but now, Artemis had ordered her to stand back and headed into battle with someone else… and it was a boy no less. It was hard for her to believe that. Zoe knew her mistress had good reason to do so, and she could easily forget it if it was one of her sisters… but him, a boy?

The Chimera roared in fury as Nero stabbed Red Queen down its back and revved up the engine of his blade, before sliding up as hard as possible, cutting into its flesh and drawing some blood. He leapt into the air and aimed Blue Rose at that same spot that he cut, charging up his shot with his demonic power. Three empowered shots were fire, exploding on impact, and hurting the Chimera even more than before, but he seemed to piss the beast off even more. The cobra tail shot into the air and attacked him from behind, but before it could do that, a silver arrow shot with extreme accuracy stab into its eyes, making the snake spray its venom violently around while hissing in pain. He looked down and smirked when he saw Artemis running around firing arrows at the beast, providing him with the support he needed to return to the ground safely. The goddess then dashed beneath the Chimera, transforming her bow into hunting knives to slash its ankles, and jumped back when it tried to stomp her with its forepaw.

"Try to keep up," Artemis said, not needing to look around to know that Nero was behind her.

"Funny, because I was about to say the same thing to you…" The devil hunter smirked, and with that, the two of them rushed toward the Chimera. When they almost reached it, they both split into two different directions, causing the Chimera to pause in confusion before it could snap its head sideways to follow them "Hey shit heads! Over here!" Nero shouted and shot the lion head with Blue Rose, making it focus its attention on him only. The lion head breathed a fireball at him, but Nero avoided it and the explosion by rolling to the side, continuing to attack it until he had emptied his fourth clip. Rushing forward, Nero used Red Queen to parry the cobra as it shot at him, knocking it back before leaping into the air and delivering a series of aerial slashes at the lion head, ending with a powerful thrust forward. The Chimera roared in pain and tried to create some distance between it and Nero, but Artemis did now allow the monster that luxury and fired an empowered arrow that she had been holding for five seconds at the goat. The arrow exploded upon impact, and actually generated a shockwave so powerful Nero was forced to use Red Queen to block it in midair before returning to the ground.

"The hell was that!?" Nero shouted, but he did not waste any time, running around the beast to face the cobra while swimming his sword around. Artemis seemed to understand what he wanted to do and followed him with her weapon transforming into the hunting knives. She faced the Chimera at the front as Nero attacked the cobra with powerful slashes of his sword every time the cobra slammed its head down, trying to land a bite on him "Miss me." Nero said as he kept on sidestepping its fast but predictable attacks "Oops, miss me again." The devil hunter taunted and then slashed his Red Queen horizontally at the area near the head, leaving a bloody gash there before rushing forward and thrusting his arm into the bleeding wound. As Nero was lifted into the air, he quickly pulled his hand back, leaving his Devil Breaker gauntlet behind after he overloaded it. As Artemis transformed into a falcon and flew over the Chimera toward him, Nero pulled out his gun, reloaded with a single bullet and shot the overloaded Devil Breaker, making it explode like a bomb just in time Artemis transformed back and dove down with her hunting knives at the ready. Aiming for that same spot on the tail, Artemis slashed her weapon, beheading the cobra and removing it from the Chimera's tail. "That's one down, two more to go."

"Focus," Artemis told him as the Chimera roared in pain, seemingly in more pain than a normal animal beast would when it had its tail cut off. Nero dashed towards the monster's legs and went underneath its body, gripping Red Queen with both hands as he swung the weapon in a circle. Flames swirled around him when he revved up the engine of Red Queen, further expanding the range and power of his spinning attacks. Artemis wasted no time to follow him as she launched toward the goat head from below and slashed her hunting knife up, cutting the part that had been weakened by her empowered arrow.

"HEY, PSYCHO!" as Nero came out from underneath the Chimera, his eyes widened when he saw the Devil May Cry van making a ridiculous turn toward him, with Nico standing at the door and Zoe the one sitting behind the wheel "Use this!" She said and tossed a long weapon into the air with the help of a hunter. Nero widened his eyes in surprise when he realized it was the Kalina Ann or at least another version of Lady's trademark rocket launcher. "That thing is for Lady, so don't mess it up!" Nico shouted and then slammed her fist into the van, exclaiming "TIME TO BAIL!" With that, the van made a full circle around the Chimera and dashed away.

Smirking, Nero ran forward and then leapt into the air to catch the Kalina Ann with his hands, spinning it around and holding it at his hip as he landed on the ground several feet away behind the Chimera. "Hey, kid! Get out of the way!" He shouted to Artemis while charging up the rocket launcher with as much of his demonic energy as he could, causing it to glow brightly while fire was flaring out from the back. Artemis looked at Nero and did what she was told, not bothering to ask him any question. The Chimera turned its heads around and looked at Nero, who pulled the trigger and fired the fully charged, empowered rocket at it. "Kaboom." The devil hunter whispered while smirking as the rocket exploded upon impact with the monster.

The explosion was nothing but devastating. The Chimera was sent crashing into the building behind it, with its left torso had been completely blown apart. Artemis looked between the dying Chimera and Nero as he walked toward her with the rocket launcher on his shoulder in shock and awe. "Great work kid." He praised and gave Artemis a pat on her shoulder as he watched the Chimera dissolving into golden dust. "Hot damn, I think I need to ask Nico to make one of these babies for me." He commented while looking at the Kalina Ann 3 in his hands.

Ignoring his comment about the rocket launcher, Artemis turned her eyes to glare at him and raised her hunting knives above her head, causing Nero to take a step back in caution "Call me kid one more time, and I will shoot you." Artemis said, but Nero did not seem to acknowledge her threat.

Still, she needed some explanations.

_Line Break_

"Didn't she tell us to wait?" Nico asked while driving her van out of the town, looking at her companion who sat on the seat beside her with one foot on the dashboard. After collecting the handbag of Echidna which contained the bodies of her hunters, Artemis had left the area, going back to her camp because she wanted to give her fallen sisters a proper funeral after telling Nero and Nico to wait for her to return so she could talk to them. "It's not wise to defy a goddess' wish, you know."

"Like hell she is. She's just a kid…" The devil hunter replied but then trailed off as he remembered what she could do "an insanely strong, shape-shifting kid. Anyway, why should we listen to her? I am hungry and want to go home." He said and leaned his head back, but his mind went back to the man that had given the Chimera the Qliphoth Fruit.

"You thinking about the fruit, aren't ya?" Nico asked as she put a cigarette in her mouth and leaned a bit to the side so Nero could light it for her.

"Yeah… There wasn't a fucking huge tree there, was it?" Nero asked as he opened the window to get some fresh air. That was the part that he could not understand. How that man was able to get his hand on a Qliphoth fruit without its tree was what he had been thinking about ever since the moment he saw it. While it would take a while and a great amount of blood for the Qliphoth to grow fruit, the tree itself was gigantic and could be seen from miles away. There were also several other conditions that had to be met, and none of them was there when they arrived. "You know much about the Qliphoth?"

"Nah, I am still researching on it, and V did not tell me much about it." Nico pointed out "You should give Trish a call, maybe she'll know something."

Nero nodded his head in agreement and reached his hand for the phone that they put on the dashboard, dialling Dante's shop number knowing that Trish would be there. He did not have to wait long for the female devil hunter to answer his call.

"Devil May Cry."

"Hey Trish, it's me." Nero greeted her with a small smile. Trish had always been nice to him, but he couldn't help but wonder if she knew he was Vergil's son from the moment they met. "Look, there's something I need to ask you. You know about that job Morison gave me..."

**_End of Chapter 1_**


	2. Chapter 2

**Aside from removing the Chimera Devil Arm, I also changed the end of the first chapter a bit. Nero and Nico did not meet Artemis and Zoe on the road and went home, so make sure you keep that in mind before reading this chapter. Thank you!**

**It's been awhile since the last time I have written anything, so please forgive me for the mistakes in this chapter. I would like to have a beta-reader too, someone who can help me clean up the mess of errors that I made.**

**Please enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"Nero" Normal Speech.

'_Nero_' Normal Thought.

"_**Red Queen**_" Magic/Jutsu/Technique.

"**Devil Trigger**" Demon/Monster Normal Speech.

'_**Devil Trigger**_' Demon/Monster Thought.

**Son of the Hearth**

**Chapter 2**

Gods were known for their ability to teleport using their true form, but that night Artemis did not feel like teleporting to the throne room to meet her father. So she decided to walk, travelling on her feet from the elevator of the Empire State Building to the throne room that sat atop Mount Olympus -the homeworld of the gods and goddesses of Olympus- floating above the heart of the western civilization.

She needed time to mourn her fallen sisters, whose shrouds had been burned by her own hands just moments ago. And time to think about what she needed to tell her father. But most importantly the boy she had fought alongside with earlier on that day, as well the mysterious man that arrived to save Echidna and turned the Chimera into an extremely powerful beast with a fruit made of human blood.

From what she could see, all the questions she had about them could have been answered if Nero hadn't left when she returned to find him. But that did not matter, because she could easily track him down.

Even if he travelled to the other side of the world.

The throne room -or the Hall of the Gods- was a majestic building, tripling the size of Madison Square Garden and made the most impressive structures down the mortal world look like an old broom closet. It was where the gods' thrones were located, and where all formal and war council meetings were held. The walls were built from the finest and hardest materials they had, while the blue ceiling high above could be seen glittering with constellations. Meanwhile, the Thrones stood in a U formation around the central hearth, starting with Zeus and Poseidon's thrones near the center as they were the most powerful Greek gods, with the goddesses sat on their left side of the hearth and the other gods took the right.

When Artemis opened the massive doors and walked into the throne room to see her father, Zeus was there waiting for her to arrive, but he was not the only one. Because sitting on the throne beside him was his older brother, Poseidon. It appeared that the two had been having a serious discussion with each other before she arrived.

"Father. Uncle Poseidon."

While the god of the sky gave her a curt nod, the god of the sea gave one with a smile towards her.

While the two rarely talked and met nowadays, Poseidon was one of the only male gods that Artemis was on good terms with and even had some respect for. He was among those that had matured so much over the centuries to a point where attributes like pride, stubbornness and fearsome temper no longer dominated him to the same extent as they did to her father; making him much more reasonable and easier to talk to than several other Olympians.

"It's been awhile. How have you been?" Artemis asked politely when she came to stand in front of the two near the central Hearth, taking a moment to look around for her favorite aunt but couldn't seem to find her anywhere.

"I have been well. Thank you, niece." Poseidon answered pleasantly and Artemis then turned to look at her father.

"Artemis, I believe you have something to tell us." Zeus spoke up in a calm tone, making the auburn-haired goddess nod her head in confirmation. "How was the hunt for Echidna and her children?"

She then proceeded to tell her father and uncle about her recent hunt for Echidna and her children, detailing where the silver-haired boy who arrived at the scene with powerful weapons and a cocky attitude, the mysterious man with the fruit of human blood and the powerful monster the Chimera became once eating it. She even spoke as to how it had been taken down, giving the boy most of the credit because she had a feeling that even without her help he would've been able to handle the empowered Chimera without breaking a sweat; like how he had handled all those monsters while making a fool out of each and every single one of them.

During the entire time Artemis was giving her report, she could see Zeus and Poseidon looking at each other meaningfully, letting her know they understood what she was telling them better than how she believed they _should_ have.

"That's everything, father." Artemis finished, and then questioned quickly before neither of them could speak up "You two know what is happening, don't you?" She looked at both of them, her silver colored eyes going from her father to his brother, who was rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous manner. She was expecting an honest answer from them, and the look on her face was telling them that she would not leave until she got what she wanted.

The two looked at each other one final time before it was Poseidon who answered her question, speaking to his niece. "You see Artemis, I won't claim to know everything… but as far as I can tell the fruit of human blood that you saw is from a tree called the Qliphoth, a tree that grew in the Underworld and thrived on human blood in order to grow a fruit that imbued with dark power."

"How come I don't know about it? I have come to the Underworld several times and I have never heard about-"

"No Artemis, not that Underworld." Interrupted her father with a shake of his head. "We are not talking about Hades' home, where mortals come to when their lives ended."

This made Artemis widen her eyes in surprise. "How-"

"There is another place with that name, existing in a dimension somewhere between the mortal world and the land of the death that we all know, and can only be travelled to using special portals. It's a grim, treacherous and hellish realm that parallels the world above it, and serves as the homeland of the Demons: powerful creatures that feast on human blood to become more powerful. We call it the Demon World."

The Olympian king paused for a second before continuing while Artemis remained silent the entire time. "Among us, Hades is the only one who has entered that place and it… it changed him, making him the only one capable of living in our underworld because the sorrowful screams and bitter cries of a billion souls cannot compare to the horrors that he had seen down there."

Poseidon then began where his brother left off. "You see Artemis, before you came to this world with your twin brother, and before this very throne room was built…" the sea god then looked around at the throne room he was sitting in. "When there were only six of us, the children of Kronos, there was a demon named Mundus. He was born from the depths of the Demon World and soon rose to power, building a great army of demons and overthrowing the previous demon king. He took over the title by himself and then planned to lead an assault on us, as he wished to conquer it and rule both the lower and upper realms; including ours. He started attacking the humans, because he knows that without them we are weakened; powerless even."

The gaze of the elder god grew distant, remembering the event as if it were yesterday. "We tried to stop him, to prevent him from plunging the world into chaos and destroying everything that we have built. But… But Mundus, he was so much more powerful than us, and all that we had faced, possibly even more powerful than the Titans."

Artemis looked at her uncle in shock and then looked at her father to see a dark expression on his face. It was the rare face that her father made whenever his pride was wounded, but he could do nothing about it.

"Our armies were also in no condition for an all-out war with Mundus and his armies of demons -as it was weakened by the previous war with the Titans- so we had no choice but retreat back to mount Olympus, preparing for a final battle with the demons… That was when a demon named Sparda came to us."

"Sparda?" Artemis repeated the name, remembering it to her heart.

"Yes. He was Mundus' right-hand man but awoke to justice and wished to save humanity, starting a rebellion against his former master." Poseidon continued with a small chuckle. "We accepted his offer, because we were in no position to ask questions or even doubt him, and tried to support him in any way we could -in the sake of our honor- but…"

"But what? Uncle Poseidon, what kind of support did you provide him?"

The sea god looked at his brother for a second before answering. "Nothing, Artemis. He told us to stay where we were and let him handle Mundus and his army alone. He came to us that day to tell us to stay out of his way, claiming that we would only slow him down." Artemis widened her eyes in shock and disbelief. "And guess what, he was right all along. He defeated Mundus and his armies alone, something that not even all six of us and our armies could do."

Zeus quickly wore a distasteful look. "Tch, given time to prepare, we would have."

"Time is not what we had back then, brother. Mundus was knocking on our doors, remember? We were lucky that there was a noble soul within his rank." Poseidon pointed out that fact, but it seemed he wasn't able to change his prideful brother's opinion on the matter… even a bit.

Shaking his head in disappointment, the sea god then turned back to Artemis and continued to inform her the story of Sparda. "After Mundus was defeated, what was left of his armies retreated back into the Demon World, and Sparda sealed off the main gateway between realms to prevent the demons from re-crossing it. We haven't heard of Sparda since then, but to those who believed in demons and worshipped Sparda, the demon swordsman became the Legendary Dark Knight, and his stories were told among humans. For over two thousand years, the mortal world was safe from the demon threats from the world underneath them; at least, until recently…"

"The demons are returning." Artemis said, as her words came out more of a statement than a question. However, she could not help but ask the question she had been wondering ever since Poseidon revealed to her the existence of the Demon World and its inhabitants. "How come I have never encountered any of them?"

"You have Artemis, several times I believe; but you just didn't notice." Her uncle informed her. "It's actually impossible for us to tell the differences between Greek monsters and demons until there is one so powerful we can see their power radiating with our own eyes and realize that monster is something else; something different from the monsters that we know and encounter every day. Given enough demonic powers, even monsters can become demons." Poseidon then scratched his bearded chin in thought. "But I don't think it works the other way around."

Artemis then remembered the dark aura that surrounded the Chimera, realizing it became a demon too after eating that demonic fruit.

"Sure, there are demons that look distinctively different than monsters that you spend your time hunting, but I am pretty sure that thirty percent of what you encounter every year are lesser demons. Because they are the ones capable of slipping through portals that are created for them to enter the human world."

Artemis nodded her head in realization. She and her hunt had indeed fought several hordes of oddly looking monsters in the past but yet she had decided to brush it off, thinking it wasn't really important. Because not even a goddess of childbirth like herself would know what Echidna and her children would give birth to every day down there in Tartarus as the results of them conceived with each other.

Even foolishly believing they could've been monsters from other pantheons she and her hunters came across by chance. Since she never bothered confirming with said people if they were indeed theirs, causing her to sweep the investigation under the rug.

"And every time a higher ranking demon or a very powerful one appeared, it would be taken care of before it could cause serious problem to the mortals… by a son of Sparda, Dante."

"Dante… Sparda has a son?" Artemis questioned.

So it wasn't Nero. Considering the strength he had shown while fighting those demons, she had almost believed that he somehow related to Sparda.

"He has a pair of twins, actually, but we do not have much information on the other one. Dante is a son of Sparda and a mortal woman, but his strength is immeasurable, possibly even more so than his father…" Zeus finally spoke up, making Artemis drop her jaw in shock. "He ran a devil-hunting business in the human world and was the very reason we have never had to really worry about the demons from the Demon World. However, he suddenly disappeared a few weeks ago, and I believe that his absence is the very reason demons and even monsters have become so much more active recently. What's worse is that it seems demons and monsters have started working with each other…"

"Yes, that's the very thing we have been worrying about." Poseidon said while rubbing his bearded chin. "Now that brings us to the boy that you met, Nero is it? It's possible that he's related to Dante or even Sparda himself, considering the exceptional skills and power that he showed. No mere mortal can be that strong, even with all those weapons. Are you sure that he's also a demigod?" He asked, to which Artemis nodded her head in response.

She had known from the moment she saw him. It was one of the reasons why she had been in shock when she witnessed his battle prowess and the way he had taken down all those monsters while making fun of them. NO DEMIGOD could become that powerful and skilled in battle, no matter how many years they had spent training and how many quests they had returned alive.

Not even those of the Big Three.

"Yes, I can tell he is a demigod, but I don't know whose child he is."

"Regardless, we have a more important matter at hand." Zeus pointed out. "If that mysterious man is really working with Echidna and her children -and knows how to mass produce the Qliphoth fruit- then we are in more trouble than we have ever been ever since the day Sparda sealed off the Demon World. We need to find out who he is and stop him before he can start creating monsters as powerful as Mundus. Because as far as we know… even that demon required its fruit to become as powerful as he was."

The king of the Olympian gods then looked at his daughter. "Artemis, for the time being, you will keep an eye out for that boy Nero and learn who he is. Find out everything you can. Also, there is no need for him to come to Camp Half-Blood since he has already survived this long, but let him know there is a place for him there. And if he wants to go there you will take him to the camp, understand?"

Artemis knew her father was giving her a mission. And usually when the mission involved a boy -especially an arrogant and cocky one like Nero- she would always make excuses and try to convince her father to order someone else to do it, because she had her duties to hunt down monsters with her hunters. However, Artemis was intrigued by him and wanted to know more about Sparda and the Demon World, so she wasted no time to answer her father.

If she were honest, she was actually feeling glad that he had chosen her and not Athena, the one he usually turned to whenever something like this happened.

"Yes. I understand, father," Artemis said, nodding her head.

"If there is nothing else, you are dismissed."

With that, the goddess of the hunt turned around to leave.

Her first destination would be her hunter's camping site because she needed to tell her hunters where she would be going for the next few days. Since they were camping not too far from Camp Half-Blood, Artemis believed she should send them to that place for the time being. She knew they were not going to like it there, but it's better for them to stay somewhere well protected than the outside world where monsters, demons and Chaos knew what else were running around. Though she didn't know if the camp's magical border would be able to keep the demons out, but it's still much safer for them there. After that, she would leave to track down Nero.

"Well brother, I am going to take my leave now. There are important matters I need to take care in Atlantis. See you around." Standing up from his throne, Poseidon stood up and walked out of the throne room, not looking back to see Zeus transforming into his real form to return to his palace.

Before he left, the king of Atlantis turned around to smile at a woman wearing a modest brown dress and a linen shawl around her shoulders that walked out from the back of the throne room and lowered her head to Poseidon, giving him a grateful smile. She was incredibly beautiful but in an unpretentious way, with warm brown eyes and richly brown hair -borderline black- that framed her face in soft curls.

Giving her a small wink, Poseidon then transformed and left the throne room in a flash of blue light, leaving the woman behind to return to her usual work. Taking her seat near the Hearth, the woman made a long, bronze stick appear in her hand and used it to poke the coals inside the hearth, causing them to burn even stronger before she used her power to make the image of a young man with silvery-white hair appear inside, bringing a warm but somewhat sad smile to her face.

* * *

"Nero… Nero!" Called a beautiful young woman in her early twenties while she was waving her hand in front of the handsome face of her boyfriend -who had been spacing out for the last five minutes- bringing him back to the real world.

"Uhm… hey there Kyrie. How is it going?" Blinking his eyes a couple of times, Nero asked awkwardly while rubbing the back of his neck as his girlfriend walked around and sat down next to him on the couch in the living room of their house. As soon as he realized how awkward he sounded, the silver-haired devil hunter changed the subject and turned his head around for a moment before asking "Where's Nico?"

"She is in the garage, working. I think she is making a new Devil Breaker for you." Kyrie answered, giggling softly when Nero groaned in discomfort. "It's not that bad, is it?"

"You are not the one who has them exploded in your face every day, Kyrie. Thank you very much, but I wish to keep my arm this time around… and maybe even my head."

"I know you are much stronger than that, Nero. So relax, you are going to be fine." She smiled, and then she asked him with a small frown. "So, what's in your mind? You've been spacing out a lot ever since you got back from that job in Long Island. Is there something else you haven't told me?"

"It's nothing important… kinda." Nero added, and when he saw that Kyrie was still looking at him with anticipation, he had no other choice but continued. "Ah well, I met this really weird kid who claimed to be a goddess."

Kyrie widened her eyes in surprise, but she did not make any comment so her boyfriend could continue. "I didn't believe her. But the more I think about it, the more I believe that she's indeed a goddess. I mean… she was really strong, like way stronger than a normal kid should. And she was also very skilled with her bows and arrows. She could turn into animals and she had a bunch of female followers who were hunters. She told me and Nico her name was Artemis. Not that noisy demon that looked like a flying fish I fought in Red Grave, but the goddess of the moon in Greek Mythology."

"Wow, that is really… something else, I guess." Kyrie said finally, smiling at him in amazement. "I mean… I am used to listening to you and Nico talking about demons and all that. But this time, it's something else entirely... a goddess no less."

"I guess there's a first time for everything." Nero chuckled as he leaned his head back and put his feet on the table.

"Was she beautiful?"

"Yeah, incredibly beau…. I mean, she's cute and all for a thirteen or fourteen year old kid but…" Nero quickly added before his girlfriend could get the wrong idea. Snapping his head to the side to look at her, he continued while grinning. "I do not think she is as beautiful as you are, even if she's really a goddess."

"Oh~ Nero." Kyrie giggled playfully and then tilted her head forward to press her lips against his, making the devil hunter smile before Nero tenderly kissed her back. After a moment, he pulled back and smiled at her. Seconds later, soft fingers grabbed the back of his head and ran through his silvery-white hair, as Nero also wrapped his arms around her waist and gently pulled her close.

"YO NERO! MORRISON IS CALLING!"

But before the kiss between the two lovebirds could heat up into something more, Nico walked in and informed him with an unfinished yellow devil breaker in her hands. This caused Nero and Kyrie to break away in surprise and snap their heads around to look at the female craftswoman, who looked at them both in wonder for a second before a cheeky smirk spread out on her face.

"Ah, I see~" Nico slurred, crossing her arms under her chest as she looked at Nero and continued. "You hold your horse there for another second, cowboy. I will go finish that Sweet Surrender for you now."

With that, she turned around and left.

"What is Sweet Surrender?" The former songstress asked in curiosity.

"It's nothing important." Nero answered while shaking his head uncomfortably, believing that there was no need for her to know about that weird Devil Breaker Nico had made for him while the two were still in Red Grave. "Uhm… I will go answer that call now. Morrison probably has another job for me."

With that said, the devil hunter stood up and walked around the table.

"Don't leave before lunch, okay? I am going to make your favorites today." Kyrie called after her boyfriend as Nero waved his hand at her and disappeared behind the door leading to the garage of their house.

Smiling, she sat up and walked into the kitchen before noticing the wind blowing strongly through the open window in the kitchen as she picked up the apron on the counter and put it on.

"That's strange." Kyrie muttered as she looked at the darkening sky after closing the window. It looked like it was about to rain very soon, and she was pretty sure that the weather forecast said it would be sunny all day long.

* * *

_**End of Chapter 2**_

* * *

**Note: Uhm… how do I say this? This chapter was made from 8 hours of playing Devil May Cry 5 on Dante Must Die difficulty, which I later changed to Human Difficulty because I played on my brother's save not knowing what it is and thinking that I could just smash my way through the demon hordes with all the abilities that my brother has already purchased… I was wrong! I would like to thank blackneo10 for pointing that out else I would have stuck at Artemis boss fight forever. To tell you the truth, I suck at video games that are not the Sims.**

**I don't know how well I have made this chapter, because I am still researching on the lore of the Devil May Cry Universe, but as you can see the timeline has been changed a bit to make it so that this story will make sense in some ways. Sparda defeated Mundus 3000 years ago around the time Olympus was still being built, not 2000 like in the dmc lore, from what I have learnt. That will explain why Artemis, or to be more specific the gods and goddesses who arrived on Olympus much later, doesn't know about the demons, but the children of Kronos do. That's the only thing that I believed would make sense while writing this chapter. Also, the reason Zeus has never told the other Olympians about the existence of the demon world was because his pride had been wounded by his defeat 3000 years ago at the hand of Mundus, and he felt humiliated that Sparda told him to stay out of his way and defeated Mundus and his army of the demons alone. I believe Zeus is someone like that, he will not want anyone to know about one of the humiliating moment in his life… so what do you think? Did I do well? I know this is short, but this chapter is meant to be a test or something like that, cause I will still need some time to learn more about Devil May Cry Universe, so I really hope that everyone will be gentle with me in the comment section. I will try to make the next chapter longer, promise!**

**That being said, I am still extremely confused about the reasons whether or not Nero can have a Devil Arm. I mean… it sounds like he can, and while I love how the Devil Breakers work out for him, make him different to Dante, I still think that this story can be a lot more interesting with Nero wielding some devil arms into battle. I mean, even if he truly can't, whenever a powerful monsters were defeated in battle, they leave behind a useful item for the ones who killed them, a spoil of war, like that Nemean belt that allows it wearer to be immune to damage, or Medusa's head that freeze anyone who looks at it. I think I can make it that when mix with Nero's awakened demon blood, he can finally turn the monster/demon hybrids that he slays into Devil Arms. What do you think about this? I know as an author I have the final say, but I would like to hear what everyone about this idea of mine.**

**That said… I am thinking about bringing Griffon back. I love that little chickeee a lot and was a bit disappointed that he has to die. Plus, with him back, I can have him hang around and protect Kyrie when I finally bring her to the main storyline. It appeared my brother intended to make her a legacy of an Olympian like Nico, but I am still trying to figure out which one will it be. Aphrodite works best, but I don't think her brother Credo is the goddess of love's material.**

**A small update on my brother's condition, the operation was successful. He will be back in no time at all!**

**That's all! Remember to tell me what you think about all of the above in the comment section. I would like to thank who has been giving me suggestions and ideas too. It's all thank to you that I was able to write down this chapter and possibly more in the near future.**

**Peace out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter would not have been finished without the help of Jebest4781! A lot of love to him and a shout out to his amazing stories! Go check them out! I haven't read them yet but my brother loved them.**

* * *

"Nero" Normal Speech.

'_Nero_' Normal Thought.

"_**Red Queen**_" Magic/Jutsu/Technique.

"**Devil Trigger**" Demon/Monster Normal Speech.

'_**Devil Trigger**_' Demon/Monster Thought.

**Son of the Hearth**

**Chapter 3**

"Nero! Nero! Wake up!"

Nero had been taking a nap for the last thirty minutes with V's book covering his face, but Nico's call was more than enough to wake him up.

Blinking, he looked around and saw that the two of them were still tearing through the night along of the dark country roads. There was nothing but rain and darkness outside. And it had been raining heavily since the moment he and Nico left the house, having received a couple of demon hunting missions Morrison had found for them earlier on that day. Because she was a normal human, Nero had no idea how Nico could see anything. But she kept her foot on the gas and continued to drive with a cigarette in her mouth.

"Something just landed on the roof."

"What?" Nero questioned in confusion.

"Something just landed on the roof of the van. You should go check that… WAH!?"

When Nico turned her head to look at him, she saw a face appearing on the window and exclaimed in shock. This made Nero snap his head around and see Artemis outside looking at him with her head hanging upside down, hand knocking on the window and appearing to be standing on the roof of the Devil May Cry van.

However, the weirdest thing was that despite standing in the rain -for some reason- Artemis was completely dry. She also didn't seem to be bothered by the strong winds either.

"Great. It's the leader of the girl scouts…" Nero muttered in surprise while looking at Artemis, who knocked three more times on the door and pointed her hand down at him -or up in her position- telling him to lower the window and let her in but he could not hear it.

Nonetheless, the devil hunter lowered the window and made a gesture with his head to invite Artemis in.

Smiling, Artemis put one hand on the roof and used it as a fulcrum to gracefully turn her body around and jump into the van, slipping over Nero before lowering her feet on the floor behind him. Before she turned around, she took a second to look at the inside of the van, paying special interest to Nico's workshop and where the Kalina Ann 3, Nero's sword Red Queen and several old and new Devil Breakers were located.

"Welcome to Devil May Cry, kid." Nero said, bringing Artemis' attention back to him as he closed the window and turned his head around to look at Artemis. "Weather sucks, isn't it? Can I get you anything? I think we still have some milk in the back."

He mocked, but Artemis decided to ignore his statement and questioned, her silvery eyes looking directly at the white haired devil hunter: "Didn't I tell you two to wait for me to come back?"

"Sorry kid, but our work there was done and we also couldn't really stay around when the local authority arrived at the scene; too many things to explain. And there will be too many questions to answer." He answered, but Artemis wasn't convinced. Nero didn't strike her as someone who liked to follow orders, so it was understandable that he left. She would not bother him anymore about that matter. "So were you able to recover your hunter's body?"

Artemis blinked before she realized what he just asked her and saw him looking at her in the rearview mirror. Before she could return to the Hunt's camping site, Nero had told her about the last fallen hunter and said that she could come to the morgue in a nearby town to recover her body; which she had done immediately after thanking him.

The moon goddess had sent out a group of six hunters to scout the area, five of them had been devoured by the Chimera and what were left of them could be found inside its mother's handbag; which Echidna had tossed into a building when she transformed into her true form and allowed Artemis to retrieve it later. Prior to this reveal, the goddess almost believed the last hunter was still alive. However -while managing to escape- she had been fatally wounded by the other monsters, resulting in her death before she could return to Artemis and warn her about Echidna and the Chimera.

The goddess nodded her head before answering. "Yes, I was. Thank you for being there with her during her last moment."

Nero nodded his head, knowing how much Artemis had lost that day. However, he also remembered the way her other hunters had looked at him. It was like all the bad things in the world happened was because of him, so he didn't know if any of them -including the one who had taken her last breath in his arms- shared the same thinking about the matter with Artemis.

"So, that thing… was it really the Chimera?" Artemis turned her head when his female companion broke the silence and asked her, feeling grateful that she had changed the subject.

"Yes, it is." Artemis nodded. "One of the offspring monsters of Echidna and Typhon…. You two have also met its mother and several other children of hers."

"Talk about birth control." Nico commented before she asked. "So you really are that Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon?"

"Yes, I am." Artemis nodded her head in response, then added when she saw the way Nero and Nico were looking at her. "I know it's a bit hard to believe, but I am telling the truth."

"Yeah, you don't really look like you are lying, and that isn't the craziest thing I have heard recently… but why are you a kid though?" Nero couldn't help but ask while remembering the clear display of exceptional strength and skills of Artemis while fighting the demon Chimera alongside her.

In the world that he lived in, a small little girl claiming to be a powerful goddess might not be the craziest thing that he had ever seen.

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire or anything else I want. But this is the form that I prefer, the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I patron... before they go astray." She told Nero as he sat up on his knees and turned around to face her.

"What do you mean by _go astray_?" He couldn't help but ask, more out of curiosity than anything else.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure…"

"Woah… that's a bit too extreme." Nero chuckled humorously, and even Nico had to nod her head in agreement as she continued to drive the van under the heavy rain. "So what are you doing here, kid? You ain't here to recruit Nico into your little girl band, are you?"

"No, there will be time for that later." Artemis answered, shaking her head. "I am here because I want to know more about the Demon World and a demon named Sparda, who defeated Mundus and his armies alone to protect the human world three thousand years ago."

Nero raised his eyebrows and looked at the auburn haired goddess in surprise; even Nico had to turn her eyes to look at the goddess in the rearview mirror as she continued. "Also, if it's possible, I'd like to know about a man whose name is Dante as well. I know he was a son of Sparda and ran a demon hunting business to keep the world safe from the demon threat until his recent disappearance; which I believe to be the reason demon and even Greek monsters has become a lot more active recently. Do you know him by any chance?"

"Yes I do know him. You saw the sign outside?" The goddess of the hunt nodded her head, remembering the blue neon sign on the right side of the van. "Devil May Cry is the name of his shop. It's somewhere in England but he gave me that sign so I could set up my own branch of his business and become a professional demon hunter. We've been helping him and his contacts with demon hunting missions since then."

"I see… do you know where he is now?"

"He's in the Demon World." Artemis widened her eyes in surprise. She actually did not expect to hear that. "You remember the fruit of human blood that demon fed to the Chihuahua?"

"Yes, it's a Qliphoth fruit, right?" Artemis questioned, knowing that Nero was referring to the Chimera. She also wanted to ask if that mysterious man was really a demon, but decided to leave it for later.

"Yeah and when there is the fruit, there's also the tree. Two months ago, a demon named Urizen opened a portal and allowed the Qliphoth to grow into the human world, invading Red Grave City and sucking blood of every citizen in order to grow a fruit imbue with a lot of power." Nero stated seriously, his tone changing. "Dante defeated the newly, self proclaimed Demon King and later left to the Underworld with his brother to server the roots from there before sealing off the portal to prevent any more demons from coming through; making them unable to return in the end."

"So you are saying that Dante and his brother cut down the tree?" The moon goddess asked and Nero nodded his head, having seen the Qliphoth falling down with his own eyes. "Then how did that demon the other day…"

"Hey, your guess is as good as mine. But if that demon knows how to mass produce the fruit without using the Qliphoth and is working with those monsters of yours; then let me tell you, we are in some serious trouble."

Artemis could only nod her head in agreement.

She could tell the fruit wasn't perfect, as it did not make the Chimera the next demon king, but there was no guarantee that the next one would not turn the monster or demon that ate it into something as powerful as Mundus, not to mention that Echidna could also use the mass-produced fruits to build an unstoppable army of monster/demon hybrids from the strongest of her children. Even Artemis had to admit that she did not know if Olympus was ready to face that kind of threats.

They needed to be stopped as soon as possible.

"Also, about Sparda, we have some books about him here." Nero said as he stood up and walked to the back of the van, returning a moment later with a stack of silvery-white embroidered books in his hand. "Here. Everything that is known about Sparda."

Artemis nodded her head in understanding and received the books from Nero, noting the same red symbol on their front covers. It looked like a combination between a longsword and an axe, with stylized feather wrapping around the blade, and a pair of ram horns curving toward the weapon's handle from the pommel.

"There's not much, but you can also find the basic information of the Demon World in there."

"It's fine. These books will do." Artemis said while looking at him gratefully. "Thank you, Nero."

"Whatever, kid." Nero said as he went back to his seat; chuckling when he realized Artemis was glaring at him for calling her a kid again.

After that, Artemis sat down on the couch and started to read the books Nero had given her. Asides from the occasional bump in the road, the only thing she heard entire time was listening to Nico and Nero's conversations in order to learn more about them as they took turns driving the van so the other one could get some rest; with Nico needing it more than the white haired devil hunter. She remained silent for most of the journey, but she still randomly looked up to thank Nico for giving her a cup of coffee...

And tried to kick Nero's shin whenever he tried to give her milk.

"I am a grown woman, mortal. I don't need additional milk."

"But it's good for ya. Makes ya all big and- OW! QUIT IT!"

After he left, the goddess went back to her reading.

From what she gathered from most of the text given to her, they were more so read out and stylized as bibles. She can understand this, given her prior knowledge that Sparda ended up having a religion based off of him. Putting this aside, she possibly got a better understanding on the man than her father, uncle and aunts. But she would still need to ask them more on what they respectively thought about the Legendary Dark Knight.

Asides from this, Nero's words held true as there were information given about the Demon World with what descriptions were given by those that so fortunately returned from that Hell scape. Detailing bits of hierarchy always shifting and changing with demons rising and falling at a constant rate while a small number held their titles and positions for quite a long time.

Then, when Artemis was about to finish another reading material about Sparda, the van suddenly came to a stop; which Artemis looked up from the book on her lap to see it was already morning. It had stopped raining entirely, but the sky was still black with clouds.

And for some unknown reason, thunder was still rumbling on the sky.

"Someone isn't in a good mood." The goddess muttered while looking at the sky from the RV's window.

She could almost see her father throwing a tantrum in his palace for being reminded of his humiliation defeat at the hand of Mundus. Looking back, Artemis saw Nico leaving the driver seat to walk to the back of the van and entered her workshop, bending down behind the counter to search for something as Nero came to stand in front of his female companion.

"What's going on? You going somewhere?" She asked in interest and placed the book on the table beside her to stand up as well, seeing Nero picking up Red Queen and sheathing it behind his back.

"Sorry kid, but chit chat with you later. It's time to get back to work." The devil hunter answered with a small grin, before turning back to look at Nico. "So Nico, what do you have for me today?"

Out of mild curiosity, Artemis came and stood next to him; finally having a good look at Nico's little workshop from across the kitchen area and the Devil Breakers that hung from the ceiling. Though she couldn't help but notice that some of them actually looked like prosthetic arms instead of being gauntlets like the others. Aside from normal looking tools and machines, she also took notice of a medium sized golden statue on the counter that resembled a lion-headed woman kneeling on a platform and holding an hourglass on her shoulder; wondering if it was just a piece of decoration.

"You remember this girl?" Nico asked with a sly smirk and put a yellow Devil Breaker on the table. It was built in an industrial style, and had engineering equipment inside. "She's up and ready to go, Lizard."

Nero picked the gauntlet up and put it on, moving the wrist and finger joints around a bit to test its movements.

"Nice. You sure this one isn't going to explode?" He questioned.

Of all the Devil Breakers Nico had made for him, Nero had a feeling that the Tomboy was one of the easiest Devil Breakers to explode because it built up a lot of energy to power up his weapons, pushing them over their limits and usually resulting in overheat the first time Nero had used it. Nico had added some modification to both Red Queen and Blue Rose so they could handle it, but the same could not be said for the new Devil Breaker itself; which had always been easy to 'break' to begin with.

"Sure! I made a few adjustments so it won't break so easily this time." Nico then put a familiar blue power gauntlet on the table, along with a green one that Artemis could not recognize. "Overtune and Gerbera, pick whatever you like." Nodding his head, Nero removed Tomboy from his arm and strapped it to his belt.

"You made all of these by yourself?" Artemis asked as Nico nodded in response.

The goddess picked up the Overtune Devil Breaker from the counter and took a closer look at it. Artemis could hardly believe that something so small and had such a simple design like the Overtune could generate electrical bursts so powerful it could shock and knock back even giant monsters like Echidna and the Chimera.

"Yeup~ I created these Devil Breakers to support this dumbass on his missions. He's fine on his own, but with the creations of this heavenly artist, no demon can stand a chance against him." Artemis could only nod her head at Nico and continued to study the power gauntlet in silence as the craftswoman turned her attention back to Nero, who was staring at the Gerbera Devil Breaker like it was a ticking time bomb; deciding whether or not he should bring it with him as well. "It's not going to explode this time, Nero. Tell you what… if it explodes then I will give you a HUGE discount for the next two weeks. How about that?"

"Fine." Nero nodded his head as he picked up the Overtune and strapped it to his belt beside the Tomboy. "Can't believe I am risking my fucking arm for these pieces of crap…".

With that, he turned around and walked away.

"OI! Stop calling my arts crap. It's ain't cheap, you know!?" Nico shouted after her friend before both of them noticed Artemis standing behind Nero, hands behind her back, appearing to be following him out of the van.

"Hold up, what do you think you are doing, kid?" He asked suspiciously.

"What else? I am following you to this hunt."

"Not a chance, kid. You stay here and let me do my job." Nero shook his head as he poked Artemis on her forehead. "I know you are a goddess and all that, but I work better alone."

Artemis simply smiled, having fully expected Nero to say something like that and it wasn't like she needed his permission to follow him. However, she still had something in mind, and that would benefit both of them in the end.

So she spoke up before Nero could say anything more.

"How about this... you let me come with you on this demon hunting mission of yours, and I will let your friend here have these." She said, and made two bronze shields appear in her hands. "These shields are made of Celestial Bronze, a powerful metal used by us Greek gods in order to make weapons that are extremely deadly to mythical creatures."

Nero actually had no idea what she was talking about, but he still listened because it sounded interesting.

"Now, while you seem to have no problem dealing with demons and Greek monsters with those weapons of yours -and I am not an expert in mechanical engineering like Nico- I can tell that your Devil Breakers are easy to break down because the metal used to make them cannot handle the powers they have inside. Celestial Bronze, however..." She put a shield down and showed the other one to Nero, knocking her hand on it several times before continuing, "is much stronger than human steel -and only weight around a third of it- making them one of the finest metals to make weapons from." She then tossed Nero the shield, and he caught it with his hand before giving it a spin, feeling amazed by how light it was. Artemis then gave Nico the other one, whose eyes were sparkling like the eyes of a child in the candy store. "Nico can melt these shields down and use them to create stronger shells for your Devil Breakers, maybe even managing an indestructible one from them." Artemis finished, and from seeing the smile on Nico's face she knew she had struck the right deal with them. Then she turned back to Nero, who was wielding the shield expertly between his hands, and asked with a small smile. "So, what will it be? Do we have a deal?"

"Tch… I really don't have a choice here, do I?" The devil hunter questioned in annoyance as he turned to his female companion who looked like she would not hesitate to smash the shield across his face if he refused to take Artemis with him. But still, he had to admit that he actually like the sound of an indestructible Devil Breaker a lot because it would allow him to save up a lot of money for the orphan kids at home. "Fine, but don't get in my way."

And with that said, he gave Nico his shield and opened the door of the DMC van to make his way out, not looking back at Artemis as she walked closely behind him.

"You don't have to worry about that, boy." She spoke with a smug grin. "Do remember that I am the goddess of the hunt."

"Whatever, kid."

_Line Break_

"So, do you know what are we going to hunt today?" Artemis asked while she followed Nero into the forest near the town Nico had driven her van into, seemingly having no problem walking on the wet and slippery ground, unlike Nero who was having a bit of a hard time keeping his balance. As they pressed onward, the goddess of the hunt couldn't help but notice that the sky seemed to get even darker than before, and she could hear lightning striking in the distance. Instead of answering her question right away, Nero pointed a finger up to the sky, making Artemis look up before asking. "What about it?" The two soon found a clear path, allowing Nero to pick up the pace.

"Don't you think the weather is a bit weird here?"

Artemis nodded her head in response, knowing what Nero was referring to. From the books Nero had given her to read, an elite demon could actually manipulate its surrounding and alter the weather to some extent… making it even more difficult for the hunters to take them head on.

"...It could be my father's doing." The goddess finally answered, making Nero quirk an eyebrow in curiosity. "You know my father is Zeus, right? He is the God of the sky, weather, air and lightning; giving him absolute control and divine authority over this kind of weather. He can choose whether it's going to rain, or even decide when it stops -intentionally or unintentionally- depending on his current moods."

"So you are saying if he's angry, there will be a storm?" Nero concluded, and much to his expectation, to which Artemis nodded her head in response. "Talk about being a drama queen." He muttered to himself. "Anyways, we are hunting an elite demon around here. Some people have seen it wandering around this area, but expect it to have some backups, 'cause demon never travel alone and prefer to group up on you."

Artemis nodded her head in understanding before she asked. "So Nero, this isn't mentioned in the book I have read but when you kill a demon… will it die for real, or will it return to the Demon World and wait some time for its resurrection?"

"Of course it dies. What kind of question is that?" He then widened his eyes in realization. "Don't tell me that Greek monsters don't." The goddess shook her head, making Nero growl in annoyance. "Great, so there's a chance the Chihuahua will return?"

"Not anytime soon, but yes, it will return at one point in the future; in any time period between a week and hundreds of years." Artemis explained. "Monsters are _archetypes_ born from chaos and barbarism that always exists in the Western Civilization, so they are purely abstract entities and will reform in place called Tartarus whenever their physical forms are destroyed. Not every monster -when killed- goes to Tartarus though, but they will all reform after some time." She finished before continuing to tell him what she had been having in her mind. "It makes me wonder… if the Chimera ate the Qliphoth fruit and became a demon, would it die for good when you killed it, or would it simply go back to Tartarus like the rest of its kind, wait a few years to come back and haunt us again with the same power it got from the fruit?"

Nero was silent, because he had no answer for her question, having no idea that the monsters could do something like that. However, it made him wonder what was going to happen if the demons could actually do something like that.

"Wait…" Artemis suddenly came to a stop and spoke up while looking around in caution. "…something is coming."

As soon as she finished saying that, Artemis summoned her divine possession and pulled back the string; creating a silver arrow from its aura and firing it at the monster that lunged at her from behind, killing it with her arrow piercing through the armor on its head. As it fell down in front Nero, who did not bother to move an inch, Artemis turned back and examined it. The creature resembled that of a large, lizard-like creature with oversized claws on their left hands, wore a round shield on their right forearm and armor on their heads to protect them from firearms.

"Is this a demon?" She asked, looking at Nero who nodded his head.

"It is… but there is another one underneath you."

Artemis looked down just in time to see another demon like the one she had killed emerging from the ground and attacking her with a claw strike. She was able to block it with her bow and used its momentum to launch into the air, giving Nero an opening to rush forward with Red Queen and slice the demon in half with a horizontal slash. Another demon came at Nero from above with its body spinning like a pinwheel, but to Artemis' surprise, a pair of arm-like ethereal wings manifested on his back. One of them shot forward to snatch the coming demon in midair and bringing it to him, who then used both of those arms to flip the demon around and slam it into the ground with such force the ground broke upon impact.

"Slam dunk!" Nero declared with a smirk before imbedding Red Queen into the flesh of the demon himself, delivering the killing blow that made the demon shrieked in pain before going limp.

More and more Assault demons appeared from the woods and surrounded the two. But a massive explosion was heard and a new demon arrived at the battlefield, coming down from the sky in a massive bolt of lightning; having the appearance unlike anything Artemis had seen.

It was about the same size as the Chimera, with red scales covering the majority of its body, rising into large spikes on its shoulders, forming into a plate of bone armor, while its claws were more like three massive pincers. It had one large white horn rose from the forehead, and a maw of razor-sharp teeth. To accumulate to its entrance, the creature's entire body was crackling with yellow electricity, which seemingly generated from its back.

The sound of electric buzzing filled the air and the demon vanished in a burst of lightning, traveling across the field in a blink of an eye before it appeared in front of Artemis and lunged at her with an upward swing. The goddess did not try to block as its cloak of electricity suggested that she should avoid any form of physical contact with it, and transformed into a small bee to avoid being launched into the air. Creating some distance between her and the Blitz, Artemis then transformed back and fired at arrow at the demon, only for it to miss when the demon once again transformed into lightning and moved around the battlefield.

Finding another opening to attack, Artemis -who remained calm and pulled back the string of her bow- notched a silver arrow imbued with her divine power. For the first time in many years, Artemis closed one eye and took aim, her eyes following the yellow bolt of lightning across the field for a split second before she snapped around and fired an arrow that hit the demon in its shoulder, knocking it out of its lightning form and sending it stumbling back while roaring in anger.

"Come at me, foul beast." Artemis challenged and then gracefully moved to the side without making even the smallest of sound, smiling when she saw the demon rushing at that direction where she had stood with a claw stab. Having faced many monsters that behaved like it in the past, the goddess could tell it was blind and relied on its other senses to tell where she was.

"Okay… did not know that she could do that." Wearing the Devil Breaker Tomboy, Nero commented in a low tone as he took down the last Assault with Blue Rose before turning the Blitz's attention back to him. Realizing that it was looking at him, Nero put Red Queen on his back and confidently treaded onward, nodding his head at Artemis who did the same to him and pulled back the string of her. "Oi! Taser face! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" He shouted and fired a round of bullets at the Blitz, making it let out an angry snarl as its electric shield flashed blue where his bullets struck it. Artemis used that opportunity and fired another one of her divine arrow at the demon, overcoming its shield and impaling into its flesh.

Knowing that it was being attacked from two directions, the Blitz demon let out a low growl before its body was engulfed in yellow electricity and the demon then started flashing all around the area. Artemis started moving as well, notching another silver arrow into her symbol of power and ran to the other side of the field to take aim; waiting for the demon to appear and slam its massive claw down Nero to fire her arrow at its back, with him diving to the side and avoiding its attack at the last second. As the beast unleashed another painful roar, Nero rolled to the side and aimed the glowing Blue Rose at its midsection before firing. Two empowered bullets struck the Blitz right in the chest, sending it back breaking its electric shield.

"Let's rock!"

Unsheathing Red Queen from his back, Nero activated Tomboy and using it on his main weapon. This caused the engine of his blade to glow brightly while radiating an unbelievable amount of heat with flames erupting continuously from the exhausts. Holding the sword with both hands, Nero then came at the Blitz with a series of relentless forward slashes, becoming faster and stronger with each strike. Knocking the Blitz around and overpowering it every time it tried to block him, the male hunter broke its pincers like claws in the process before flipping around and bringing Red Queen down the demons' head in a devastating strike; thus severing it neck from its body before slamming the rest of it down the ground. He then leaped back, because what followed next was a massive explosion of red electricity, coming from the headless body of the demon.

When the flash ended, the Blitz was gone with its head being all that remained.

Picking up the head from the ground, Nero walked back to Artemis with a smirk on his face. Nico would surely love to have a Blitz's head to work on his new Overtune with Celestial Bronze.

"Mission accomplished. Great work, kid!" The demon hunter praised while rubbing her head. "Haven't seen anyone taking on a Blitz with a bow and arrow before. But I guess you are a goddess for a reason."

She soon batted his hand away with a scowl on her face. "Would you knock it off? I am three thousand years older than you, you know."

"Whatever, kid." Nero chuckled as he walked away with Red Queen on his shoulder. "Now let's get going as I don't wanna stick around if more of those things were to show up."

"Wait! What about those wings that appeared on your back!? What were they? What are you!?"

"Despite being a goddess, you sure ask a lot of questions… just like a kid. You know that?"

With that said, the two left the area, and went to look for Nico.

* * *

**End of Chapter 3**

* * *

**Note: This is it for this chapter! It actually took me a while to finish so I hope everyone like it.**

**I finished DMC5 this morning and what a game it is. I suck at the combat but I cannot help but admit that it has such an amazing story. I really like it when Nero obtained Devil Trigger and shouted he was not going to let Dante and Vergil die (or is it just Vergil I couldn't tell). The music was spot on and it really hit me in the feel. Nonetheless, I will start playing DMC4 very soon. I have the special edition downloaded and I will spend the weekend playing it and researching the previous games on Youtube, as I don't think I will have time playing those games.**

**I hope you like the idea of Nico using Celestial Bronze to make Devil Breakers for Nero. I know that I have removed the Devil Arms from this story (maybe even bring them back in the near future), but Celestial Devil Breakers (is it a good name?) will open up to the possibility of a Devil Breakers with two combinable abilities. I have been thinking about that. If the shell is strong enough to handle the power inside, would Nico be able to create a Devil Breaker with two abilities? Of course there will be limitations that I will explore in the future chapters, but for now I think a Devil Breaker that does not break after a single use of special ability will do fine for Nero (Of course we're not talking about Overtune, since turning it into a bomb mean it can't be used after it has exploded).**

**I also noticed that Nero at the end of DMC5 could make his new arm disappear in order to wear Nico's new Devil Breaker, but I think I can take a more logical turn of it and make it power gauntlets instead. It would be weird for the people around Nero to see his arm keep disappearing every time he equips a new devil breaker. But if everyone wants I will change it back to how it is at the end of the game.**

**Also, instead of ideas for Devil Arms, I have a few ideas for new Devil Breakers in mind that will be made from the fragments that were left behind by the Demon/Monster Hybrids. Nonetheless, I would love to hear everyone's ideas if you have it! Might even considering making some happen for real in this story so don't hold back and tell me what you have in mind ^^.**

**I hope everyone like the fight scene. I am actually not that good at writing this kind of scene like my brother, who always help me whenever I need to write one in my stories. While writing this chapter, I also realize that it's hard for me to keep Nero a talkative warrior that taunts his demons nonstop, because I don't know the right words that fit his characters. Nonetheless, I will try my best to improve, so please be gentle with me about this matter in the comment section. It's only because of Jebest4781 I was able to finish most of this chapter.**

**I decide not to let Artemis reveal to Nero that he's a demigod in this chapter, because quite frankly she had no reason to do so, as Nero also doesn't need to go to Camp Half-Blood. However, there will be an event in the next chapter that will force him to go there with Artemis and with that he will find out he's a demigod, so stay tuned for it ^^**

**That's all I want to say. Remember to give me a lot of feedback to tell me your opinions on this chapter. I am actually kinda nervous with this one, but I can only hope for the best.**

**Can I overcome the 200 reviews mark with this chapter? I remember my brother was able to do it when his story was still up! I really hope that I can, to show him what an amazing story that he has missed out. **

**Peace out!**

**P/S: I am actually watching over my brother in the hospital while writing this chapter. It's 2 a.m. in the morning here.**


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